One man's loss,another man's gain.....

By Hellen Nyamweru: It appears that not everyone will appreciate programs meant to benefit the poor in the slums,not even if the projects are striking at the root of one of Uganda's problems;Poverty. Political leaders can either guide the people under their jurisdiction or mislead them.The latter is what slum dwellers of Nabuyonga,a settlement in Mbale came to witness when mapping of the settlement was curtailed by area political leaders who claimed the program focused at 'stealing' people's land.According to them,mapping was equitable to surveying the area,readying it for investors',imaginary investor' since they do not have any documents whatsoever to back their claims.These leaders have selfish interest in the area and are threatened by any development ventures because they feel their influence will be compromised.Nabuyonga settlement qualifies to be a slum under the UN indicators and past efforts to ameliorate the area have not been successful because of the same leaders.It has insecure residential status which means the residents lack secure tenure and evictions are rampant,poor housing quality and overcrowding,inadequate access to clean and safe water as well as  inadequate access to proper sanitation and other infrastructure.

Some of the houses in Nabuyonga slum,Mbale

During enumeration,the same problem was experienced, collective meetings were held with all area  leaders but they bore no fruits.Some of the leaders would not see eye to eye and the federation therefore resorted to individual meetings to enumerate the slum.It was not easy but they were able to do it eventually.These are the same leaders who would be asked of the population of the area only to suggest very unreasonable figures which were gross underestimates of the actual figures.Accusations of corruption and inefficiency are wont in the area according to area residents,significant sums of money intended for particular projects do not reach the community.One LC I Chairman in Mbale whose name i will not mention disclosed that to his knowledge most of the vaunted projects in Nabuyonga have never materialized.There is evidence of some previous development though it has not translated to sustainable outcomes.
Another isolated case of resistance to the program was witnessed in Namataala settlement;Doko cell still in Mbale where leaders stopped the excerscise,led the slum dwellers to the police station where their maps were confiscated only to be get them back after the Mbale municipality officials intervened.

The local gin malwa distilling den in Soweto slum

Misinterpretation of the excerscise by the leaders also led to similar events in Jinja,Soweto settlement where slum dwellers and ACTogether staff were physically confronted by the area residents.Soweto slum probably gets its name from the South African Soweto slum and it is inhabited by the bulk of the urban poor in Jinja municipality,their numbers swelling year after year yet the leaders give no attention to their plight.The housing in this slum is not defined and there are no proper routes,most of them are congested, grass thatched and prone to catching fire.
There is a lot of alcoholism in the area and people spend most of their precious time drinking the local potent gins distilled within the slum area.The Jinja slum dwellers federation had visited Soweto to meet the leaders and sensitize them over the program but on reaching there they were not given an opportunity to table their issues but  were instead chased with machetes!!!.This was so absurd and they had to run for dear life.The leaders there had labelled the federation as land grabbers and this is what had made the community hostile.
What is encouraging is that despite all this incidents,the slum dwellers were able to map the rest of the slums both in Jinja and Mbale,they are unstoppable and most have appreciated this excerscise as open sesame,an opportunity to have their settlements mapped,recognized,the data entered,maps produced and documented to produce rich inventories that can be used to lobby and negotiate for better services in the slums.The mapping will also serve as a tool towards securing tenure for the slum dwellers because it will have formally recognized their structures and no one will have the right of pushing them around like  leaves  swept in a courtyard,no one !!