12 October 2006, By Elizabeth Kameo, Kampala - Last Monday Ugandans celebrated 44 years of independence. Like many my age, I chose to skip the rather childish celebration at the famous Kololo Airstrip, and instead dwelt on reasons why we should not even be bothering. After all as far as independence goes, I reckon there is nothing independent about Uganda.
And then I thought of the hustle I would go through getting searched just because the President is at the function. See when a president is some place in Uganda; it is nightmarish to go there. You get searched like you are a terrorist, you do not get to take your phone, anything that looks suspiciously like a bomb even a pen, you do not get to take, in the end the best way to go for such functions is to avoid a bag and just go with the clothes you are wearing.
 

Silver platter

Yes we are Independent! Away from home affairs, we still do rely heavily on donors to solve our internal problems, we even cannot solve a civil war without the help of the rich western countries an what"s worse we need a court on another continent to try our rebels who have killed, raped and tortured children, women and men! Does that spell independence? More on donors, how about the billions of dollars we owe the donor world? They still heavily fund our budget; basically we cannot get anything done unless the donors intervene. Now I wonder why the Queen"s country even bothered to hand us a flag and a country on a silver platter?
At first I had thought I would actually try and be more patriotic. I even attended the launch of the Black, Yellow, Red – Celebrate Uganda Day. And I was considering going to clean the Independence Day Monument, I thought twice and found something better to use my time with.
But what I witnessed Monday morning in the city center made me forever change my mind. Either I was in another capital but what I saw in the city center speaks volumes. All the shops were open; people went about their own business, trying to earn a penny more. For all the care in the world, they seemed to be searching for their own independence; independence from poverty.
 

Hullabaloo

 
What independence is there to celebrate, I thought. The fact that the roads are filled with potholes as deep as crater lakes? Or that we get to fall into these potholes and can hardly manage to drive out without macho men having to lift our cars out! At first I thought I was being a little too hard on my country for not celebrating Independence Day and being a part of the whole hullabaloo, but now, I realise I made just the right choice. Imagine just the other day. Monday October 10 to be precise, as I drove from home to work, I realised I needed to get gas for my car and as I drove to the first petrol station not far from my house, the pump attendants signaled there was no gas. I drove on to the next and the next and the next, and they all had no petrol.
If my mathematics is right, there are about six petrol stations between my house and my office and that is a distance that takes between 20 and an hour depending on traffic. The next day it was pothole trouble, trying top beat the traffic and get to work on town I used an access road. My two doors, most affordable car lived to tell the story thank God. Not only did we hit a pothole, it got in and almost disappeared I had to enlist the help of jobless men who were sitting alongside the road.

Abortion

It is funny though, I did not and do not feel independent in any way. How can I celebrate a holiday in a country where as a woman I am still considered a second class citizen? If I should want to have an abortion, I cannot. Finding emergency contraception in this place is as hard as finding a job when you are out of one. Very rarely do the issues of women get thought of as serious even by the legislatures who are supposed to do so. And talk of any legislation that will help women feel more secure in the country such as the Domestic Relations Bill, that is something that will probably never make it into a law in this country.
For the past 40 years the Domestic Relations Bill has been debated, thrown out, debated and thrown out again and again by every new Parliament, reason, women want to "steal" their husbands" property if the bill is ever made into law. And it is only supposed to protect the family!
How then then can I find it within me to celebrate independence? Those issues aside, are we really better off today as a country than we were at? What is there to cheer about, dance around and celebrate when come to October 9, every year? The last time I checked, things were only getting worse. The road to my office in Namuwongo is almost impassable and the word electricity today is as rare as sugar was in the mid 80s (we had to line up for sugar and show chits signed by the Local Authorities)! Is that the Independence I had to celebrate?
 

Pot hole capital

 
Whether we want to admit or not, the economic condition of our country has deteriorated compared with the period prior to independence. As a child, we had electricity 24/7, all week and all year round. Even when there was a power failure, it would not last more than an hour at the most. You may have had to book if you wanted to make an international call but at least this worked and the rates were not so high. And there were buses as well that run on the hour. The towns were schools, hospitals, roads, were functioning, there was even medicine in these hospitals. Today Kampala is the "Pot hole capital of the world" as Sanyu FM put it and if you want to get treatment, you have to be able to afford the private hospitals and clinics or get pain killer for a diagnosis of Malaria!
Civil servants were committed to their work and hardly received bribes; neither did they ever play trick or treat with their jackets (When civil servants get to office in Uganda, they hang a jacket behind their chairs and walk out in search of "deals that will bring them quick money, those who walk into their offices are fooled into thinking they just went to use the bathroom maybe. They only get back when it is time to go home). Teachers were highly respected and the educational level was high. Forty-four years ago, we were richer than we are now, the air was fresh and no one was trying to buy a significant forest for his or her own selfish needs. Now all this has changed. Maybe when it gets better then we shall get another independence one which I will look forward to again.
So, as you can see, I really had no reason to celebrate Uganda"s 44th Independence anniversary. I certainly do not feel independent. I probably will not be in a celebration mode any years on, unless things or course change.

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