On November 18, a day before the greatest event in Busoga took place – that of Isebantu and Inyhebantu declaring “Until Death Separates Us”, I had not visited Iganga Municipality.

I had not been to Iganga Municipality for a long time. The first impression I got was that the municipality is much, much cleaner than it was before. It is even much bigger.

Well, behind every problem, there is the problem of leadership; behind every progress is the progression of leadership and behind every retrogress is the retrogression of leadership. It was my impression that generally there was progressive leadership in Iganga Municipality.

Most likely politics, the real problem and roadblock to progress in Uganda, is not such in Iganga Municipality. I thought, perhaps rightly, that politicians of different political lineages had decided to work together to make Iganga Municipality as an example of a clean, progressive polity with minimal political conflicts and controversies.

Even before I got off the bus, however, I noted that the Iganga Bus Park, which used to handle big buses of Uganda People’s Transport and Uganda Transport Company, is now a miniature of its former self. Most of its space was contracted by the authorities allowing business people to construct buildings everywhere and in a rather disorganised manner.

Meanwhile makeshift businesses are scattered within the park. More serious is that there are far more cars than buses of the Costa type. The park is now too small to handle the big buses I used to see when I was a young boy in the 1950s when we were a British Protectorate. There is no proper entrance to the park.

If there have been retrogressive fundamental changes in Uganda then we must include The Iganga Municipality Bus Park.

When I sought to know what plans the municipality had for the park, I was directed to the chairman, Nalugoda, to brief me how the park is doing and why there are more cars than buses utilising its space. He was far away in Kaliro. So, I rang him after getting his contact from one of the bus drivers.

He was very receptive. He told me the Municipality does not manage the park. The bus owners manage it but have no power to reclaim the Bus Park space from the numerous businesses, from which the Municipality gets royalties. He went on, “The municipality does not have interest in seizing responsibility for the park beyond getting royalties. It is not bothered about taking it back to its former glory when it would work 24 Hours a day, serving even buses from Kenya and Tanzania. The Costas use the space only until 2.00 pm. The rest of the time is left to shopkeepers to use it for their cars. So it is a bus park for only a few hours of the day, and a car park for the rest of the day”.

When I asked Chairman Nalugoda what plans he had to improve the utility of the park and make it just a bus park, he told me,  “My management team is almost helpless. Higher authorities must develop a proper plan for the park. The municipality is expanding and will need a properly constructed park. If they want they could move the park elsewhere and leave their current space for businesses. Meanwhile I have a meeting with the road parking managers to see if they could take over the management of the cars in the bus park. If they take fees from those who park their cars in the bus park it may help. But there is no doubt that urban planning for Iganga Municipality must include establishing a proper bus park now that this one has been reduced to a miniature of its former self. A new bus park must be part of a grand transport system planning undertaking in the municipality”. 

One defining characteristic of a properly planned municipality, town or city is its transport system. If Iganga has a well-designed bus park, it will be able to once again handle big buses all the time like it used to before the Movement (NRM/A) collapsed the country’s bus and railway systems. There must be a well-planned revival of Iganga’s transport system from its current chaotic situation. Iganga must be one of Africa’s well-planned towns. And this must be a goal for the municipality. Without a proper bus park, this will be just the dream of the 21st Century.

Although this article is focused on Iganga, it makes sense to all towns, municipalities and cities of Uganda and Africa.

For God and My Country.

• A Tell report / By Prof Oweyegha-Afunaduula, a former professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences of the Makerere University, Uganda