The Black Mambas

---

Imagine: You and 13 others are in the high court. The judge grants you bail. But, then the court is invaded by a group of armed soldiers wearing black T-shirts.

So, knowing that the armed men known in Uganda as the Black Mambas are not exactly a welcoming committee, you ask the court to take you back to prison. For protection, from the tender mercies of the Black Mambas Urban Hit Squad.

Welcome to Kampala High Court. Welcome to President Museveni's Alice in Wonderland concept of 'justice'.

The High Court's top judge James Ogoola described the incident as "a despicable act and a rape of the judiciary". He made comparisons to the dark days of Idi Amin. The legal profession staged a one day general strike on Monday 28th November in protest.

The fourteen men who were granted bail, but begged to be returned to jail, had been charged along with Dr Kizza Bessigye with treason amongst other things. Dr Bessigye didn't appear in court that day. Dr Bessigye is an opposition politician that recently returned from exile. He used to be a political ally of President Museveni. In fact Besigye fought alongside Museveni in the NRM (National Resistance Movement). The NRM came to power by the barrel of the gun - so I have some doubts about Besigye new found love of democracy.

Even so, the fact that Museveni seized power by the barrel of the gun, means that when he charges other people with treason, I think of words like pot, kettle and black.

Museveni obviously wants to hang onto power. Next year, he'll have been in charge for 20 years. For years he didn't allow any political parties except his own to exist. He claimed that political parties would only lead to tribalism and the chaos and horrors of the Idi Amin era.

But, in recent years Museveni has been under pressure from Western aid donor countries to democratize. So, he's unbanned political parties. He's going through the motions of holding elections, but he has no intention of losing power. So, bringing criminal charges against his strongest political opponents looks suspicious, to say the least.

The arrest of Besigye and the 14 others earlier in November led to 2 days of riots in Kampala, the banning of political demonstrations, even the seizing of posters demanding the release of Besigye and threats by the government against the freedom of the press.

Recent events are not the only or first abuses of power of the Museveni government. Museveni's power base is the army, which he allowed to plunder the natural resources of the D.R.C. (Democratic Republic of the Congo) when the Ugandan army invaded. Some army generals became very rich as a result.

Having said all that, Uganda is a much better place than it was 20 years ago. The era of Museveni's rule has so-far been one of relative political stability, and it has also enjoyed one of Africa's fastest growing economies. I was in Uganda in the 1990's. It is visibly more prosperous than it was. So, western donor nations have considered Uganda a sucess story because of its liberal economic policies and its support for America's War on Terrorism (sic).

When Museveni was challenged in a press conference, that the riots may have tainted Uganda's image, he said:

"No, not at all. On the contrary it showed a strong state. If I were an investor I would say 'yeah', this is the place to be"

Daily Monitor, November 30th.

Maybe Museveni is right. Maybe, the likes of Bush and Blair care more about British and American commercial interests in East Africa, than they do about human rights and democracy.

Back to the diary. At the end of the last blog I was still in Kigali, Rwanda. I had bought a bus ticket to Kampala, Uganda, just a couple of days after the riots in the city.

SATURDAY 19th NOVEMBER

First thing in the morning I booked out of the Hotel des Mille Collines and hopped onto a motorbike taxi which took me to the main bus station in Kigali. I was at the bus station at 8.15am. The bus was due out at 9am but was already waiting, so I boarded. It was a relatively comfortable coach - luxury by African standards. I had booked with Jaguar 'executive' coaches. The journey to the Ugandan border was uneventful. We arrived at the border at 10.30am, it took about half an hour to get through the border formalities. I had to buy a visa and change some money with the border touts. After the border formalities it was a long drive to Kampala.

The journey was relatively comfortable, even if the driver did sometimes take the corners on the mountain passes a little too fast, leaving me to wonder which side of the road he was supposed to drive on. The scenery passing through the south west of Uganda was stunningly beautiful. An unknown tourist, none of you will ever have heard of, by the name of Winston Churchill, described Uganda as the Pearl of Africa, with some justice.

I finally arrived in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda at 8pm in the dark. I staggered off the bus, avoiding the taxi touts who mobbed me by the door of the bus. I knew that there was an hotel just around the corner from the bus depot for Jaguar coaches. So, I walked 100 metres around the corner and into the lobby of the Hotel Equatoria, which is an upmarket hotel that cost me $US100 a night. It suffered from a common fault of luxury hotels in Africa. It had an old, dirty and smelly carpet in the room - tobacco fumes rose from its shag pile. The place although it needed a refit, had air conditioning, satellite TV, a swimming pool and a health club.

SUNDAY 20th - WEDS 23rd NOVEMBER

On Sunday morning after breakfast I walked around the city centre, to find all the shops and to look for other hotels in which to stay. The Hotel Equatoria's publicity claims that it is the city's most central hotel. Not true. Unless of course they are only counting 4 and 5 star luxury hotels! Anyway, wandering around the centre of the city I found a number of possible places. I asked the price at the Holiday Express Hotel, which is very central. They charged me 60,000 Ugandan shillings ($US32). I took the room, walked back to the Hotel Equatoria and booked out. The Holiday Express Hotel didn't have a swimming pool or a Health Club, but then it also didn't have carpets that stank of tobacco - it had much more sensible tiled floors. But, it did still have satellite TV and en suite bathrooms. I spent the rest of Sunday and all day Monday working on the last blog entry. Tuesday, I spent relaxing in cafes.

The last time I was in Kampala, was in the 90's. Back then I didn't notice the South African fast food chains, the South African owned Supermarkets, or a shopping mall that looked like it had been transplanted from South Africa. Possibly they weren't there then. It's maybe a sign of the increasing prosperity of parts of Uganda in recent years. Kampala was trashed in the 1970's. It's come a long way since then. But, its no Venice. Much of the city still looks ugly, squalid and dirty.

On Tuesday night I stepped onto the rug next to the bed in my room. It was soaking wet. I looked around to find that there was water under the bed. So, I investigated the source of the leak. The water appeared to be coming from under a locked door which led to the next room. I went outside into the corridor. The room next door appeared to be empty. So, I went down to reception to tell them that my room was flooded and that I thought the problem was in the room next to mine. When a maid opened the door to the room next door, I could see that the whole of the floor of the room was deep in water. The problem was the overflow of the water tank on the toilet. The maid turned off the water to the toilet. The hotel staff moved me to another room that was dry.

I was intending to leave Kampala on Wednesday morning, but I changed my mind and stayed another day in Kampala.

THURSDAY 24th NOVEMBER

I finally left Kampala. I caught a minibus to Jinja at 9am, arriving in the town at 10.30am. Jinja is a provincial town on Lake Victoria. It is also the place where the river Nile starts. The river Nile runs off Lake Victoria. Jinja is the source of the Nile. The British explorer Livingstone was looking for the source of the Nile when he died.

When I arrived in Livingstone I walked from the centre to Explorers backpackers, which is run by a company that runs white water rafting trips on the Nile. At the backpackers they persuaded me to go to their other place 8 km out of town at Bujagali falls. They gave me a lift to the Nile River Explorers camp-site. At the camp-site I booked myself a Banda (a thatched hut), which cost me 20,000 shillings ($US10).

After dropping my luggage at the camp-site I hopped onto a motorbike taxi. I visited the site of the source of the Nile, then walked around the town of Jinja, returning to the camp-site in the evening.

FRIDAY

25th

I had booked myself onto a white water rafting trip but it wasn't until Saturday. So, I went into the town of Jinja and spent time in its cafe's. In the evening I was in the bar talking to the bar staff when an Irish guy invited me to join their group. The group partying in the bar -were an Exodus overland tour group. I joined them for a drink or so. Some of them got very drunk - they continued drinking until after midnight although I gave up at 10.30pm. I haven't been drinking a lot of alcohol whilst I've been traveling, I can't drink anywhere near as much as I used to be able to do. The Exodus overland tour were on a 2 week camping tour of Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.

SATURDAY 26th

Today was a full day white water rafting. We started at 8.30am with breakfast. I found myself white water rafting with some of the same people I had been drinking with the night before. We had 14 rapids to travel down - some of them class 5 and very scary! I did flip on one of the rapids but this time I kept hold of the raft's guide rope, unlike when I went rafting on the Zambezi. So, I didn't have to swim back to the raft. The trip cost $US95 and included breakfast, a light lunch and an evening meal. We got back to the camp-site at about 5pm. I relaxed for a few hours, then went to the bar at 9pm. They played a video of the days rafting trip.

SUNDAY 27th

I made my way to Mbale, which is a regional town, overlooked by mountains near Mount Elgon National Park and the Sipi Falls. Its a picturesque town. It's a base for visits to the park and the falls. I booked into the Green Gardens hotel at 1pm for 45,000. I didn't do much else all day.

MONDAY 28th

I left the hotel at 8am and walked into town, getting breakfast at a restaurant in the centre of town called Naruli's. Then I took a Bodi bodi (push bike taxi) to the bus park for taxi's and minibuses to the village of Sipi. I sat in a collective taxi for over an hour before we left. The journey itself only took an hour. So, I was in Sipi by 11am. I booked into the Crows Nest camp-site. I wasn't camping, I got myself a private cabin for 30,000 shillings ($US16).

Sipi is a picture postcard picturesque location. So, as soon as I had booked into the campsite I went for a guided hike of the Sipi Falls. It was a four hour hike to 3 waterfalls and a cave full of bats. It was a climb up steep hills and through little villages and past homesteads. Joseph the guide pointed out various plants along the way. He also pointed out the other camp-sites and lodges. There are 2 camp-sites in Sipi - Crows Nest and Moses's Campsite. The campsite's are cheap, they are also members of the Ugandan Cultural Tourism Association. That means that they are owned by locals, and that the money goes to the locals. Sipi also has 2 upmarket lodges, but they are owned by Mzungus (Europeans).

On the way back from the falls the guide took me to a homestead to sample the local brew which is made from fermented maize.

In the evening I talked to various people in the campsite's bar and listened to one of the camp-sites guides tell tales about his ancestor around the campfire.

TUESDAY 29th

I was thinking of going on a cultural tour of the nearby villages, but when I asked at breakfast I was told that they really needed a group for it to be worth their while organizing.

So, I decided I might as well make my way back to Mbale. I got back into Mbale at 11am and booked back into the Green Gardens Hotel, this time it only cost me 40,000 shillings. This room was 5,000 cheaper because it didn't have a TV. I relaxed the rest of the day.

WEDS 30th

I left Uganda. I caught a minibus to the border town of Malaba at 9.30am. At the border I got a bodi bodi (push bike taxi) across no man's land and hopped into another overcrowded minibus at the other side after sorting out the visa formalities.

I got into the Kenyan town of Eldoret at 3pm. I walked around the corner into the Hotel Sirikuru which cost me 4,000 Kenyan shillings. The hotel looked very smart from the outside, it even has a swimming pool, but the rooms are somewhat shabby, with dirty and worn out carpets. I did a bit of shopping in the town centre including buying myself a Kenyan SIM card for my cellphone. I usually buy a SIM card in each country that I visit. The SIM cards are cheap.

I'm now in Kenya. It's getting close to the end of my time in Africa. I've booked a tour to the Antarctic for January 11th which leaves from the south of Argentina. So, I've got to be in Argentina in January. That doesn't give me much time left. I'm not going to be able to get to some of the places I had intended. I had planned to visit Ethiopia and Sudan. That's not now going to happen. I would need more time than I have left. So, I will fly out of Kenya. My next blog will be about Kenya and will be my last blog from Africa.

---

Comments

[Mukesh]

Re-Sipi Falls
it was great to see these Falls after 37 odd years what's really frightening is the lack of water and from my memory the Sipi Falls were really loud and the water that was falling was a lot more than whaty i could make out from these great photos-must the changing World Weather across the Globe