By Amiri Wabusimba
Urban transformation often begins with hopeful visions cleaner cities, safer neighbourhoods, greener horizons.
In Kampala, the redevelopment of the Nakivubo Channel by Ham Enterprises was hailed as a bold step toward that vision.
For years, the channel had symbolized the city’s struggle with flooding, waste, and insecurity. Its rehabilitation was cast as a triumph of innovation and partnership a local project echoing the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals for climate-smart and inclusive urban growth.
But whenever it rains, that optimism is quite literally underwater, Downtown traders now wade through flooded arcades, counting losses worth millions every time a storm breaks.
Viral videos of merchandise floating through submerged stalls have become an unflattering emblem of a project that, at least for now, seems to have worsened the very problem it sought to solve.
While city officials have distanced themselves from the project and denied responsibility, the developer insists that long-term benefits will eventually outweigh the disruption.
For ordinary traders, however, each downpour renews the same fears financial ruin, unanswered questions, and the haunting sense that “progress” has once again come at their expense. At the heart of this crisis lies a failure of environmental foresight.
Wetlands, natural floodplains, and green corridors once dismissed as idle spaces have been systematically reclaimed in the name of modernization.
Kampala’s rapid urban expansion, like that of many cities across the Global South, has favoured concrete over conservation.
What was meant to symbolize progress now serves as a warning: that sidelining ecological systems erodes the very resilience that sustainable urbanization requires.
Yet the Nakivubo story is no longer just about water management, it has morphed into a contest of narratives, political, institutional, and deeply personal.
Letters circulating online, purportedly from Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), reveal conflicting accounts over who authorized what. Some documents suggest procedural irregularities, while others appear to shift responsibility between the City Council, the executive, and the technical arm of government.
In this fog of paperwork and power, the opposition-dominated City Council, led by the National Unity Platform (NUP), is accused of siding with the developer.
Meanwhile, officials aligned with the ruling establishment claim that the council failed in its oversight duties even hinting that political resistance delayed proper regulation.
As accusations and denials ricochet across social media, governance itself has taken a back seat to political theatre.
What began as a public works initiative has been weaponized into a political trophy. The anguish of traders the very citizens these projects are meant to protect is now amplified, not for accountability, but for applause.
Their losses have become convenient talking points on TV/Radio Tal Skow and campaign speeches. The result is a tragic inversion of purpose: a flood-control project now drowning in politics, with those most affected watching helplessly as their pain is politicized.
This politicization exposes a deeper governance failure, When development backfires, who shoulders the blame the private investor, the state that approved the works, or the local leaders who failed to enforce oversight?
The letters, claims, and counterclaims point to systemic weakness beyond party lines: fragmented coordination, opaque decision-making, and a troubling disregard for environmental prudence.
Timing has only deepened the disaster, Engineers and meteorologists reportedly failed to warn against construction during the heavy October–November rains, yet works intensified at the peak of the wet season.
Some analysts now suspect that electoral pressure the urge to showcase progress ahead of campaign cycles accelerated implementation. Across much of the developing world, political calendars often override scientific ones, leaving projects unveiled for the cameras but unprepared for the climate.
Kampala’s predicament is not unique, From Lagos’ reclaimed lagoons to Nairobi’s vanishing wetlands, cities across the Global South are confronting the same collision between rapid development, weak environmental governance, and political urgency.
Too often, urban progress is measured by how much concrete is poured, not by how much nature is preserved. For Kampala, redemption lies not in blame, but in reform, a full, independent environmental audit of the Nakivubo project is essential one that scrutinizes design, compliance with environmental law, and public engagement.
Affected traders deserve compensation, but more importantly, they deserve transparency. The city must restore lost wetlands where feasible, adopt nature-based flood control strategies, and ensure that every future development undergoes rigorous environmental review before approval.
True environmental stewardship requires humility the recognition that nature, not politics, ultimately dictates the terms of progress. Urban resilience is achieved not through haste, but through harmony between human ambition and ecological balance.
Kampala’s leaders must now move from trading accusations to rebuilding trust, from exploiting tragedy to preventing it. The floods at Nakivubo are not merely a test of engineering; they are a test of conscience.
How the city responds with accountability or opportunism will determine not just its political trajectory, but its environmental future. The rains will return, as they always do.
Whether Kampala sinks again or stands resilient will depend on whether its leaders choose to learn from the storm or continue to campaign through it.
Have An Advert Or Article You Want Us To Publish? Whatsapp: +256786288379 or email binocularugnews@gmail.com
