The Trip That Never Was

This morning, 29April, I set off for Kampala from the Masaka taxi park about 8:45am aboard a coaster.  I was headed to Kampala for a few meetings and a bit of relaxation for the weekend. Masaka and Kampala are about 134 kilometers apart. All was going well till we arrived about 20 kilometers outside. I peered out the front window to see taxis, cars, truck and other coasters flashing the lights of the vehicles and the driver waving their arms in a circle out the window, indicating turn around. Our coaster driver immediately pulled over and got on the phone. I knew something major was going on.

My first thought was here we go again, more riots! Than the driver turned to the passengers in the vehicle and spoke something in Luganda. I pick out a few things and what I could tell is that I was correct, more riots. The conductor told me that we would move forward but could not go all the way to Kampala. I was fine with that. Our driver took off again and about 5 kilometers later the police stopped us. They were making every vehicle that was heading to Kampala pull over. Of course I called a few of my friends to see the status in Kampala and they said the riots were bad. I started to think going into the city isn’t such a good idea.

We set there for at least 30 minutes with other coasters, taxis, trucks, and buses, than the police released us to go again. The closer we got to the suburbs of Kampala the more vehicles we saw pulled over and people just standing around waiting. Our coaster got to Nsangi and the driver pulled over again. The conductor told me that the riot had spread from Nattee to Kysanga and we had to stop. Everyone got out of the coaster again. I was to have a meeting today with Richard Kymbia from MAF, so I called him and he said, “Don’t come to Kampala.” I also called two other friends and they said the same thing, “It’s bad here”, “Gun shots and all the shops are closed”. Right then I prayed again and asked God to help me make a decision. I knew I had to head back to Masaka. I grabbed my bags and just then a taxi bound for Masaka came by and I flagged it down. I ran to it and boarded. I made it back safe and sound to Masaka about 1:00pm, were things are calm. Thank God I made the decision to come home and thank you God for guiding me.

You may ask why these riots took place today. Today’s protest turn riot happened, because people were mad that the opposition leader, Besigye, had been beaten, pepper-sprayed and dragged away by police yesterday morning.

Why? Well Besigye, who was a runner-up to veteran President Yoweri Museveni in a disputed February election, was arrested on Thursday and later freed on bail for his role in leading the ongoing protests against soaring fuel and food prices.

The protests – dubbed “walk to work” in solidarity with Kampala residents who cannot afford public transport as a result of high fuel prices – have been joined by several opposition politicians, one of them still in detention.

Besigye’s arrest, the fourth in three weeks this month, followed a week of detention in a countryside prison where he was held with three of his supporters and the head of the Democratic Party, Nobert Mao.
Please keep Uganda in prayer!!