Kampala Riots

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Gunshots. Buring tyres. Angry mobs.

Riots have been consuming Kampala for the last three days. It was surreal to go through town on our school bus and see people pointing and shouting at us in such an unfriendly way. When one classmate took out her camera, the crowd on the opposite side of the road got aggitated. Our teacher immediately shouted, with a new note of urgency, for us to hide our cameras to “stop provoking them.” Some of my classmates were caught in the middle of a riot and couldn’t leave the internet cafe they were at. Smoke, shouting, gunshots, and more shouting. The battle of the people against the police raged on for hours before they could safely get on a taxi and go home. We passed by the centre yesterday evening; strangely quiet and ghostly, especially when Friday nights are always bustly in a friendly atmosphere.

From what we can gather (most of the news is in Luganda), it’s a combination of tribal tensions, anger against Museveni, high unemployment rates, all sparked by a visit to a youth conference the Buganda King wants to make this Saturday. Power struggle between the Buganda King and the King in the region where the youth conference is held; discontent with how most of the government elites are from the Western region of Uganda where Museveni is from; youth that are extremely loyal to the Buganda King; youth from another region who oppose the Buganda King… anger that has been brewing for three (or seven, our informant can’t really remember when a riot of this scale last happened) years erupts admist all the chaos. So far, roughly 21 are dead and 69 injured; 550 are arrested. Yesterday, riots started at 8 am and ended in the afternoon, then started again at 2 am. I can still hear gunshots going off every few minutes outside the hostel.

Rumours have it that the students at Makerere University want to strike against the 80% increase in tuition. Last time there was a strike, cafeterias were looted, chaos ensued, and 2 died. Currently, campus is closed and no strikes have started, yet.

Another round of gunshots and a stream of running people from outside the window.

(post written on Saturday)