In a country where unemployment has become a thorn in many people’s heels, frustration is growing over the lack of job opportunities for local citizens. University graduates, who should be driving the economy forward, are instead turning to boda-boda riding to make ends meet.
Young women with high levels of education are resorting to commercial sex work, while street vendors face the wrath of authorities in the name of keeping Kampala clean and world-class.
It is said, “When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers,” and in this case, it is the struggling Ugandan hustlers who feel the weight.
The sight in places like Kabalagala and Kansanga, two bustling Kampala suburbs, is a bitter pill to swallow. Here, foreign traders, often dressed in brown veils or elegant kanzus, openly run retail businesses, selling khat and other substances, sometimes just steps away from the city center.
Shockingly, many of these traders are undocumented, neither contributing revenue to the nation nor operating with the proper licenses. Meanwhile, locals are pushed to the wall.
The unfairness cuts deeper when one sees Ugandans trying to make an honest living, only to be swiftly arrested or harassed for vending in the streets. Yet these foreign businesspeople seem untouchable.
As the proverb goes, “The cowards never start, and the weak die along the way, which leaves us with only the strong.” But even the strong are now being brought to their knees, feeling abandoned in their own land.
This situation has not gone unnoticed. Chrispus Buule, a concerned citizen, took to his X (formerly Twitter) account to express his frustration: “Who allows Eritrean/Somalian refugees to engage in retail businesses in a country where we are grappling with unemployment I’m not anti-immigrants, but the number of undocumented immigrants in Kabalagala/Kansanga is worryingly high—some are selling khat and others drugs.”
The cry is clear: how can foreigners operate freely, unchecked, while Ugandans struggle for even the smallest piece of the economic pie? “A hungry man will eat even the bitterest roots,” but Ugandans are calling on the government to ensure that their rights are protected and that fair opportunities are provided to local citizens.
This situation, if left unchecked, is bound to sow more seeds of resentment among those who feel increasingly neglected.
