By Frank Gashumba
Info@frankgashumba.com
A disgruntled Police Constable (PC) on Friday afternoon [May 12] walked into Raja Chambers along Parliamentary Avenue, Kampala, and did the unthinkable.
Armed with an AK-47 gun, the police officer who was later identified as PC Ivan Wabwire shot dead an Indian national, a businessman named Uttam Bandari who was then working as a Financial Services director.
CCTV footage from the scene [which has now made it’s way into the public domain] shows how other office occupants including a lady with a pink scarf wrapped around neck [that lucky woman] survived death by a whisker.
The shooting incident comes barely two weeks later after a bodyguard shot dead a minister before turning the gun to himself.
Details later emerged that the bodyguard, Pte Wilson Sabiiti was distressed over financial difficulties. It is claimed that this was why he ended up shooting Col (Rtd) Charles Engola, the now former State Minister for Labour.
Whereas this was an act of misplaced anger, this is an issue we can not just sweep under the rug.
How did we get here? Why are Ugandans suddenly so angry? What is happening?
Our society has changed so much, a reality, which has partly contributed to the ongoing mental health crisis.
14 million Ugandans, according to last year’s statistics from the Health Ministry indicate that this number as mentally sick. And what is partly the cause? People have become so self-centered. Everyman for himself and God for us all.
50 years ago when you faced a challenge, the whole community would get concerned. Today, when you get a problem, prepare for judgement while people gossip behind your back.
I miss the old days.. sometimes. A child would know all know all members of his entire clan but today, we only meet at burials. What is even more hilarious is that you can spend years in Kampala and don’t know where your brother stays yet your all living and working in the City.
Personally, l don’t know my neighbors’ children because they are driven inside tinted cars and when holidays come, they are flown straight to Europe and not to see their grandparents in the village like in the past.
How are we going to live as one yet we barely don’t know each other?
You fall sick, no body will check on you. You become indebted, the world laughs at you.
But the moment you die, the same friends who never helped you [at your worst] will buy you an expensive coffin, carry your body for prayers, contribute millions for feeding mourners and of course, give moving eulogies on how they loved you and how you have left a big gap in their lives. The pretence!
They will show you love when dead and gone, a kind of affection they never expressed during your time alive. And once buried, no body will care anymore especially for your children that you left behind. The empty promises they made will never be fulfilled and to make matters worse, they will be conniving to grab the little properties you left behind.
Of course these turbulent times have also been brought about by other factors including the growing era of Social Media.
In families, for instance, there is no communication.
TikTok, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram have taken over that space. Nobody is listening to another anymore. Everyone is glued onto their phone trying to solicit for attention and validation from the masses. No wonder the mental health crisis is a ticking time bomb in this country.
Life was partly easier then without Social Media. There was no need to prove a point to anyone. When a husband and wife got a problem, they would seek mediation from the elders or clergy me but today’s married couples are running to Facebook, Twitter to rant about their marital problems before later announcing to the whole world that they are divorcing.
Again, how did we get here?
l am afraid that if we don’t reform today, we shall end up having no template of morals and values left for the future generations.
Unless we start living as a society and we develop “Ubuntu,” we shall get more problems.
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