{UAH} There is need for order in public life

The killings in Masaka have been chilling. However, this is not the first time we are dealing with such scenarios. One hopes, this too will quickly pass, and we have our lives free of fear of unknown again. 

Dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic is stressful enough. But then, times like this are fertile ground for people attempting to get their way. 

It may seem that our public life is systematically degenerating into spats of public order mayhem. These incidents are becoming too many to ignore. It is easy to look at political actors and reduce this to elements dissatisfied with the State, which going by our voting patterns may be easily isolated because they cannot be too many. 

One expects that those who are charged with the responsibility of maintaining law and order will soon be in position to explain these events and also deal with them more decisively.  

We have lost something in our idea of law and order. Our sense of law and order has been really narrowed down as many things that ideally should qualify for punishment have become normalised as and people get away with them very easily. 

But before we get to people killing by whatever means, we must look hard at our idea of orderliness. It is not clear what remains an issue of law and order in the larger scheme of things. 

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Years ago, a group of youth known as the Mungiki movement in Kenya became mobilised into militant and political networks. They made people uncomfortable. The Mungiki became commonly referred to as a Kenyan Mafia due to its organisation. 

In his study of the group, Jacob Rasmussen argued that one way of understanding the connection between the various elements of the Mungiki was to look at specific youth practices that cut across apparently separate activities.  The Kenyan government banned it and decisively dealt with it. One should not regard any problem as insignificant because it can grow into something unmanageable. 

In another case, still in Kenya, what started as a stone quarry in the 1970s in the Dandora area in Nairobi, would later become a huge dumpsite, with more than one million people, about one in every four residents of Nairobi, living in the Dandora areas, according to some reports. 

Families at some point were living and feeding off the dumpsite trucks that bring food. That site, would at some point be controlled by gangs who took over government functions like security and tax collection. 

Lawless behaviour can grow into life threatening situations, quickly. If you live and drive in Kampala, you have experienced a classic sense of public disorder. 

Friends who visit Kampala marvel at our driving skills, they wonder how anyone can drive in this city. 

I have sometimes offered my car to friends who are visiting and know they are good drivers, but they will not accept because they think it takes special skills to be able to drive in Kampala. 

Boda bodas surge at the lights in what is menacing to be exact. You are overtaken at the same time from the left and right, in a single lane road, and pushed off the road by taxis and people who do not find staying in your lane interesting. Cars drive at least a minute, after the lights have turned red, refusing to stop when the red lights come on. 

In most urban towns,  by 7pm, markets start to emerge by the roadside close to wherever there is lighting. These block the road  forcing motorists to manoeuvre through their merchandise. 

Brand new markets are built on loans or whatever else, but would-be users prefer the roadside and leave them empty. We watch all these like there is nothing we can do about it.

All these are signs of a broken social system, fuelled by an economic system that is not working for many. 

That we find ourselves helpless in the face of boda bodas, market vendors and groups enjoying their rights to enjoy life by playing loud music until the babies in the neighbourhood cannot sleep, with nothing for us to do, indicates that we badly need to fix some things, before they become serious security threats.

We need to find ways of preventing things before they grow into bigger problems we cannot fix without losing a lot of lives. 

Respect for simple rules like driving and stopping when lights change, staying on your lane when you drive, respect for other road users, are all indicators of a society whose public life is ordered. 

If those elements of lawlessness are not dealt with, it is easy for criminality to become unabated. There is need for order  in our public life, beyond political events. 

Ms Maractho (PhD) is the head and senior lecturer, Department of Journalism and Media Studies at UCU. 

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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"

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