Theme; No Justice without dignity, menstrual health, water access and women rights.
Busia Zone, Katanga, The Forgotten Corner of Kampala’s Smart City Dream
In the heart of Kampala, just a short distance from Mulago Hospital, lies Busia Zone in Katanga,a community that has become a silent casualty of the city’s modernization agenda. Beneath the rhetoric of a “Smart City” and the polished streets of central Kampala, this neighborhood tells a different story one of neglect, inequality, and a looming public health disaster.
For the single young mothers who make up a large part of Busia Zone’s population, survival is a daily struggle. Their children play beside an open sewage pit that has turned into a health hazard and a symbol of abandonment. The pit, festering with waste and disease, sits in plain sight, yet it has been ignored by those entrusted with the city’s welfare. Politicians have come and gone, using the community’s suffering as a campaign prop, promising change that never arrives. The question that lingers is chilling must Kampala wait for another “Kitezi like tragedy before acting?”
The city’s current wave of inspections and beautification drives has bypassed Katanga entirely. Garbage collection is sporadic, if it happens at all. Piles of uncollected waste clog the drainage systems, turning rainwater into a carrier of disease. The lack of proper waste disposal is not due to the residents’ negligence it is the result of institutional neglect by the very authorities meant to protect them.
Sanitation is another crisis. In a community of over a hundred people, only two toilets are operational. Each use costs between 200 and 300 shillings an impossible expense for families already struggling to afford food. The public toilet once maintained by KCCA has long been closed, its doors locked, its purpose forgotten. The result is open defecation, contamination, and a growing risk of cholera and typhoid outbreaks.
The irony is painful. While Kampala’s streets are being paved and its skyline modernized, the people of Katanga are being left behind. The “Smart City” vision has translated into job losses for informal workers, many of them single mothers who once relied on small road side /traffic marketing to feed their families. The existing markets of Wandegeya and Kalerwe are unaffordable as the fees/fare needed to get a stall or space is quite high. However, enforcement operations have led to arrests of these young single mother hawkers, leaving children unattended and homes broken.
This is not progress ,it is displacement disguised as development. A city cannot be called smart when its poorest residents are forced to live in filth and fear. True progress must be measured not by the shine of its streets but by the health and dignity of its people.
The situation in Busia Zone Katanga demands urgent attention. The leadership of Kawempe Division, KCCA, and the Ministry of Health must act decisively. Reopening and expanding sanitation facilities is not a luxury it is a necessity. Regular garbage collection, proper waste disposal, and accountability for the release of hospital waste from Mulago into residential areas are essential steps toward restoring safety and dignity.
Equity must guide Kampala’s transformation. Different communities have different needs, and development must reflect that diversity. The women, children, and men of Katanga are not asking for sympathy they are demanding inclusion.
A clean, smart city cannot exist alongside forgotten . The health of Busia Zone Katanga is the health of Kampala. The time to act is now before neglect turns into tragedy, and before the dream of a smart city becomes a nightmare for those left behind.