Living off the ruins of Kabaka’s Kireka hill

Nov 15, 2009

THE golden morning sunrays filter through the tree branches in the lush lawns of Kabaka’s palace on Kireka hill. The brilliantly coloured flowers and the greenery are refreshing, reminding one of the biblical “Garden of Eden”.

By Gerald Tenywa

THE golden morning sunrays filter through the tree branches in the lush lawns of Kabaka’s palace on Kireka hill. The brilliantly coloured flowers and the greenery are refreshing, reminding one of the biblical “Garden of Eden”.

The place also commands a spectacular view of Lake Victoria and the cool breeze is filled with royalty. But all this beauty suddenly vanishes the moment you step out of the palace gates.

The calmness gives way to a rugged landscape, with the smell of sweat, dust and filth taking the better part of the atmosphere.

The area is littered with thousands of impoverished people living off the stones they excavate, crush and sell to earn a living.

Kireka hill is a place of sharp contrasts. David Mugalya, the LC1 chairperson, says the hill is a haven for women and children engaged in an endless search for the hidden treasure — the stones.

The people never settle from daybreak to sunset until they excavate huge rocks and crush them into smaller stones.

“It is a tough task, but it is also a sure way for thousands of women and children to put food on the table,” Mugalya says. “This has bailed out many starving and homeless people.”

Most of the miners, Mugalya points out, are people from Acholi in northern Uganda, who fled their homes during the two-decade insurgency in the north that left many people dead and others homeless.

It is mainly women and children engaged in the business while the men stay home relaxing and drinking alcohol.
But the survival of the residents on Kireka hill has not come cheaply.

The beauty of the hill and the trees that once sheltered the rocks are no more. A short distance away from the palace, the scars left behind by this activity stare you in the face.

The landscape bears huge gaping holes, bare soil, water pools and makeshift houses. “It looks like a human body covered by sores.

The extent to which beauty has been squeezed out of this hill is very visible,” says Festus Bagora, a National Environment Management Authority official.

“The native trees that used to lace the hill are no more.” As the miners dig deep, cracks develop in the rock making it weak. “Water sips through the gaping holes and cracks.

This could push up the rocks forcing them to slide and cause buildings on top of the hill to collapse. This is a disaster waiting to happen, especially as the rains intensify,” he warns.

The area is prone to landslides, massive soil erosion, malaria, typhoid and cholera outbreaks because of stagnant water and poor sanitation.

The miners have already witnessed accidents as a result of environmental degradation. “There are cases where quarries collapse, killing the miners,” says Bagora.

Other common accidents include flying stones that cause blindness and other injuries. “Miners on this hill do not have any protective gear. It is common for the miners to hit their fingers as they crush the stones.”

Their method of burning huge rocks using car tyres to split them is disastrous. “The black fumes from tyres cause breathing complications,” says Bagora.

“This should not be ignored given the fact that the women work with children and babies strapped on their backs.”

Who is to blame?
“We have tried to intervene but the problem is that National Environment Management Authority does not own this land,” Bagora says. “If you move hard on the people, they will demand an alternative site or run to politicians.”

Ironically, the residents pride in being neighbours to the king’s palace. They say they were living in uncertainty sometime back as rumours were rife that the Kabaka was planning to evict them.

“It was a difficult time,” says Martha Akello. “But later, we sent an emissary who came back with an assurance that the Kabaka will not throw us out.”
Akello says their fears have been allayed.

She also says it has been possible for her to put up a shelter for her family from the money she earns from the stones.

“It has not been easy surviving in the city, but at least I do not spend on rent and it is a lot easier to earn money,” she says. “How much one earns depends on how hard one works. If you are lazy, you get little or even nothing,” she says.

In addition to the Kabaka’s land, the “invaders” have dug up part of the hill that belongs to National Housing and Construction Company (NHCC).

The company had set the land aside to construct a housing estate.
“We have 200 acres of land on this hill, where we wanted to build a housing estate,” says an official from NHCC.

“We have halted the plan pending support from President Yoweri Museveni. We hope we shall turn it into a housing estate one day.”

As early as the 1930s, the Kireka quarry was supplying stones for construction in the city. When the construction industry gathered momentum in the in the 1990s and the 2000s, thousands of people poured into the quarry.

Okello and her colleagues briefly settled at the edge of Kinawataka swamp near the railway line before shifting to the slopes of Kireka when they discovered they could make money from small-scale stone mining.

Another group of people came from Namboole to give way to the construction of Mandela National Stadium.

After years of savings, some of the miners have opened up retail shops and doing petty trade in Kinawataka swamp. The activity is slowly eating away the swamp below the slopes of the hill, according to Bagora.

The side of the Kabaka’s palace facing Kireka town has also not been spared; with a lot of unplanned settlements springing up.

“The place is crammed. People have put up structures on any available space without any plan,” says Samuel Mwesigwa, the engineer for Kiira Town Council.

“This has made sanitation a big problem as sewage is left to flow in the open, which is very dangerous especially in the rainy season.”

But as the authorities sit and watch the inhabitants make a buck, disaster is waiting to strike.

A cheaper option would be for the authorities to organise and sensitise the people on the dangers of environmental degradation. There is also need to start a tree-planting campaign in the area.

Only then will the impact of this dangerous activity be mitigated. But the way things are now, the buck is there but the future remains grim for the stone miners and the surround areas.

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