Riots and the West

Hi All!! It’s been a pretty crazy week and a half here in Uganda. I’m gonna try and doing a quick recap.

On Thursday, September 10^th, riots broke out in Kampala. The Kabaka (king of Buganda, one of the kingdoms in Uganda) was planning on going to see one of his areas. The government had come out and said it would be not be a good idea because the people there did not want the kabaka to come and there might be violence. So when the Buganda Prime Minister set out to the area on Thursday to prepare for the Kabaka’s Saturday visit, the police stopped him and would not let him continue on his journey.

At that point, we were in lectures at Makerere University. Charlotte, our Academic Director, announced that the Buganda Prime Minister had been kidnapped and riots were starting in the Old Taxi Park. We later learned that he was not actually detained- but that was just a rumor.

On Sunday, we left for our Western Excursion. We saw zebras on the way there!! Super exciting!! Monday, we had a site visit to the Millennium Village Project in Ruhiira. The drive there was on these small dirt roads through tiny, super isolated villages. Our first stop was the school. They had four computers that were solar powered. One of their main challenges before was absenteeism due to kids having to fetch water and food from long distances. So now they collect and filter rain water. They also have a lunch program and grow their own food there. Next stop: the health clinic. It was very pretty and had a lovely yard. There were lots of people waiting there for different tests, etc. Our last stop was the agricultural center. They have a nursery and teach people how to farm different crops. It was very interesting to finally see a Millennium Village. There are some in the development community who feel that a ‘big push’ will help bring people out of extreme poverty. The 10 Millennium Villages are meant to be guinea pigs for this methodology. The hard issue is project sustainability once UNDP and the other international organizations leave. We also did not get the opportunity to talk to villagers while there, so we were all left wanting a different perspective on the project.

Next up: Nakivale Refugee Settlement. It’s hard to describe this place. It holds 50,000 refugees from many different countries. When we got there, we were divided into five groups to talk to different ethnic groups. My group went to meet the Sudanese refugees. We spent about a little over an hour with them. We talked about the difficulties they face, which are numerous. Each family is given a plot of land 100 X 100 meters, a jerry can for water, some cooking utensils and a plastic tarp to put over their roof. THIS is what they are supposed to build their lives upon. The land that we were on was basically rock-hard desert. They got their first rains the day before and you could tell that their “garden” hadn’t seen rain for a long time. The water they collect is very far away and when they get it, it is green. They are given a small amount of food from the World Food Programme for each month. Unfortunately, the food delivery is notoriously late. For example, we were there September 14^th and they had just received their September food delivery THE DAY BEFORE!!!! Amazing. There are 12 families of Sudanese and around 130 people. They said that even though there was peace in their country they would not be able to go back. Many of them were ex-soldiers while others were political refugees. They were originally in refugee settlements up north, but had to leave because of insecurity issues. Our whole discussion was very sad. They did not have any hope. Many had been there for over 7 years and there is literally NOTHING to do in this settlement. They said they faced discrimination because of being Sudanese. They have language difficulties which prevent them from doing well in primary school and gaining medical access. We left there with very heavy hearts and lots of different thoughts swirling around our heads. So much to think about.

On Tuesday, we left for Kigali, Rwanda. The drive was long, but beautiful. Once we crossed the border, we started to drive on the right side of the road!! It felt like being back home!! The streets in Rwanda are BEAUTIFUL! No pot holes. There are lines on the road. There are traffic lights and pedestrian signals. People stop for pedestrians. It was AMAZING! Kigali is beautiful! It looks like a western city! It’s smaller than Kampala but super, super nice and so clean!!

Tuesday night we arrived pretty late, but had to go to two lectures. Our first one was on the gacaca courts. They are the traditional courts that have been reinstated and are used to try genocideres. There are 169,442 judges. These judges work on a volunteer basis, although they are given health insurance and when the courts are closed, they will be given $20, a medal and certificate of merit at a banquet and also a radio receiver. Pretty sweet. Some of the challenges the courts face are :

-Insecurity for the witnesses and survivors, judges, and even the files.

-Genocide Ideology: people are worried that speeches and acts will lead extremists to attempt another genocide.

-Trauma Cases: people are traumatized after the testimonies. These hearings are not simple traffic cases, but rather cases where your whole family has been murdered and tortured by your next-door neighbor. Intense. When they have trauma cases, they delay the cases and provide mental help and then restart the cases.

-Corruption: there is bribery and favoritism. The appeals courts work to correct these injustices.

-Transportation of prisoners to courts: the courts are held in the villages wehre the crime was committed. Many of these prisoners are housed in prisons far away and so they are having transportation issues.

After our next lecture on the Unity and Reconciliation Commission we headed off to bed.

Wednesday was a difficult day. I'll write more in the next post.

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