Port Bell pier struggles to come back to life
May 30, 2008
Patches of tarmac on the marram network of roads, the running tap water connections and fenced plots with numbers on the gates, screams of a glorious past. But as a result of war, Port Bell has gone down the drains.
By Titus Kakembo
Patches of tarmac on the marram network of roads, the running tap water connections and fenced plots with numbers on the gates, screams of a glorious past. But as a result of war, Port Bell has gone down the drains.
Visibly sleepy at first sight, property moguls are scrambling for and fencing off any land in the vicinity. The new developers are electing Hollywood-style mansions, a sharp contrast to old former government buildings, which stick out like soar thumbs with gaping window panes, rusted roofs and overgrown lawns.
Commission agents roam the area sweet-talking owners to trade off their property.
The panoramic scenery of the blue sky, ‘kissing’ the Lake Victoria waters from a distance, is a crowd-puller of property developers.
Port Bell’s proximity to the lake has attracted industries because it is ideal for waste disposal, water supply and easy transportation.
Dug out canoes loaded with charcoal, firewood, fish and passengers commute between the pier and the islands on the lake.
The post-election Kenya crisis elevated Port Bell further as an access point to the outside world, from the land-locked Uganda.
The weekly market has since been transferred to Luzira, to create more space.
The gullied road network is overgrown with bush and punctuated with mountains of garbage. The monotony is, however, broken by neat short drive-ways leading to individual homesteads.
Most of these residential areas like Chorley Crescent, Lake Drive and Malt Road with a reasonable road network, are dwarfed by industries and huge ships.
The port, without a passenger ship, a cemetery silence hangs around the once booming Port Bell Pier, named after Sir Hesketh Bell, a British protectorate agent in 1906.
Built to handle trade between Uganda and her neighbouring countries, a casual stroll here today is a revelation of two wrecked passenger ships, Pamba and Kawa.
The rusty vessels on the shoreline have seen better days. Looking like they survived the Second World War, they are serving as breeding places for rodents and ‘dining tables’ for the marabou storks.
The immigration office lends the area a pinch of life with some 20 temporary travel document applicants shuffling about. Travellers prefer to process their documents here because it is congestion-free, unlike the border immigration offices at Busia and Malaba.
The applicants are often destined for Sudan, DR Congo, Kenya and Tanzania. Punda, a ship that visually seems to have seen better days, plies the Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda routes. The only cargo transporter handles traders loading more than 200 tonnes each. For cargo less than this, traders use manual-steered boats.
“It takes us between 24 to 48 hours to get to our destination,†Ndugu, the pilot says.
Patches of tarmac on the marram network of roads, the running tap water connections and fenced plots with numbers on the gates, screams of a glorious past. But as a result of war, Port Bell has gone down the drains.
Visibly sleepy at first sight, property moguls are scrambling for and fencing off any land in the vicinity. The new developers are electing Hollywood-style mansions, a sharp contrast to old former government buildings, which stick out like soar thumbs with gaping window panes, rusted roofs and overgrown lawns.
Commission agents roam the area sweet-talking owners to trade off their property.
The panoramic scenery of the blue sky, ‘kissing’ the Lake Victoria waters from a distance, is a crowd-puller of property developers.
Port Bell’s proximity to the lake has attracted industries because it is ideal for waste disposal, water supply and easy transportation.
Dug out canoes loaded with charcoal, firewood, fish and passengers commute between the pier and the islands on the lake.
The post-election Kenya crisis elevated Port Bell further as an access point to the outside world, from the land-locked Uganda.
The weekly market has since been transferred to Luzira, to create more space.
The gullied road network is overgrown with bush and punctuated with mountains of garbage. The monotony is, however, broken by neat short drive-ways leading to individual homesteads.
Most of these residential areas like Chorley Crescent, Lake Drive and Malt Road with a reasonable road network, are dwarfed by industries and huge ships.
The port, without a passenger ship, a cemetery silence hangs around the once booming Port Bell Pier, named after Sir Hesketh Bell, a British protectorate agent in 1906.
Built to handle trade between Uganda and her neighbouring countries, a casual stroll here today is a revelation of two wrecked passenger ships, Pamba and Kawa.
The rusty vessels on the shoreline have seen better days. Looking like they survived the Second World War, they are serving as breeding places for rodents and ‘dining tables’ for the marabou storks.
The immigration office lends the area a pinch of life with some 20 temporary travel document applicants shuffling about. Travellers prefer to process their documents here because it is congestion-free, unlike the border immigration offices at Busia and Malaba.
The applicants are often destined for Sudan, DR Congo, Kenya and Tanzania. Punda, a ship that visually seems to have seen better days, plies the Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda routes. The only cargo transporter handles traders loading more than 200 tonnes each. For cargo less than this, traders use manual-steered boats.
“It takes us between 24 to 48 hours to get to our destination,†Ndugu, the pilot says.