Kagoma: The village with no clinic, toilets

Kagoma Gate village in Kakira, Jinja, lacks most social services like a clinic, school, clean water and toilets, writes Jackie Nambogga.

Located in a valley, Kagoma village is bordered by sugarcane plantations on one side and the Butamira forest reserve on the other. A water stream (commonly called Lingize River) runs through the village.

Lazalo Wabomba Masaba, the area LC1 chairperson, says whenever it rains, children cannot go to school as the entire place floods.

Kagoma Gate was created in the 1960s by the retired Kakira sugar factory employees and sugarcane cutters whose contracts had expired. The residents are from Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.

The locals include the Bagisu, Jopadhola, Basoga, Lugbara, Baganda, Iteso, Acholi and Samias.

NO SPOUSES

Karaveri Nyarushari, 78, a Burundian national who has lived here for 40 years, says he used to share a room with four other people while he worked at the sugar factory. They were not permitted to live with their spouses. So, those who could not be away from their spouses, constructed mud-and-wattle houses at Kagoma gate village.

“My rights were denied and whenever I felt like having sex, it could cost me, yet I had a wife back home. I decided to bring her along to avoid further expenses and this is how I ended up here,” Nyarushari says.

BURIAL GROUNDS

Unfortunately, the village occupies land that belongs to Uganda Railways Corporation, making the settlement illegal. Despite this, locals bury their dead near their houses. Many of the graves are for young children.

Eunice Dadu, a Sudanese, regards Kagoma Gate as her ancestral village since she was born here. “We do not have anywhere else to bury our loved ones. Many unmarked graves are hidden here because we used to secretly bury at night,” she says.

Meanwhile, those who are taken to health centres for medical attention but die are abandoned there, leaving the responsibility of burying them to the sub-county authorities.

HYGIENE AND SANITATION

The area district woman councillor, Immaculate Pajobo, says the village is like a refugee camp.

“The houses are similar to (those of) people displaced by wars, people are jobless and they do not get any assistance from the central government, yet they have a right to services like education and health, among others,” Pajobo says.

The residents are disease-prone as there are no latrines. Trees act as toilets. One has to be careful walking around, as faeces are scattered all over the place.

There is also no clear garbage disposal plan, putting residents at risk of diseases like cholera, diarrhoea and malaria.

Initially, locals drew water from a ditch which they shared with animals as the only borehole had broken down. However, Giving Circle Africa (TGCA), a charitable organisation based in the US and Rotary International helped repair the water source.

HEALTH, EDUCATION SERVICES LACKING

Since there is no clinic, medication is largely by use of local herbs.  Most mothers lament about lack of health services and education as their main challenge, saying their children trek long distances of between three to four kilometres to school.

Robina Nambuya, a mother of eight, says some children go to St. Paul Rwambogo Primary School, four kilometres away, in Buyengo sub-county, Jinja district.

Kawa Musubika, eight, says she walks three miles to Mutai Primary School in Budondo sub-county.

MAIN ACTIVITIES

The main activity is brewing of waragi (local gin). Many of the people consume this local brew, which is associated with high incidences of domestic violence.

Cattle keeping is common, while other people breed chicken and ducks. The youth engage in opium smoking.

Rev. Johnson Andama of St. Stephen’s Church of Uganda and the vicar of Kakira Parish, says there is need to build a church.

“There is need for spiritual guidance to instil discipline and enable locals be God-fearing. The Anglican Church should consider this urgent,” Andama explains.

GAZATTED BY ELECTORAL COMMISSION

Despite being an illegal settlement, the village is gazetted by the Electoral Commission and they vote at Y16 Kyenda polling station.

The people seem to have strong sentiments for the National Resistance Movement. The area Member of Parliament for Butembe constituency,  Daudi Migereko, and the two district councillors, Paul Balidawa and Pajobo — both NRM — were voted for overwhelmingly.

INTERVENTION

The leaders have joined efforts with TGCA to improve service deliver. Moses Mukhwana, the team leader from TGCA, says the organisation is constructing a three-classroom block and will equip it with desks and chairs. He adds that the pupils will also be given uniforms, shoes and scholastic materials.

Emmanuel Walubi, TGCA’s project engineer and manager, says a clinic is also in the pipeline. In fact, there was a ground-breaking ceremony, presided over by Migereko recently.

Migereko assured the donors that he was working on formalising the settlement.

“This project will not be interfered with because we are holding talks with the land owners so that they give it to us to improve the lives of our people. The talks are yielding results,” he says.