Kampala’s Pursuit of Beauty Has Turned Non-motorized Namirembe Road Into Symbol of Neglect

In the heart of Uganda’s capital, a wave of enforcement under the “Keep Kampala Green” campaign has swept across the city. Hajjat Buzeki Sharifa, the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Executive Director, and her team have taken to the streets, cracking down on pedestrians found stepping onto green spaces.

Arrests have been made, and victims paraded before courts. While headlines may applaud the city’s efforts to protect its environment, the lived reality for most Kampala residents is far from green.

For the everyday pedestrian, street vendor, or traveler navigating the city’s crumbling infrastructure and chaotic transport systems, this campaign feels less like an environmental initiative and more like the criminalization of survival. In one alarming incident, a law enforcement officer pursuing a street hawker knocked over an innocent pedestrian. Such scenes are becoming disturbingly common, illustrating that the campaign’s focus on aesthetics is eclipsing the urgent need for structural reform. But the question remains: why are people walking on the grass in the first place?

Kampala’s roads are potholed, the drainage systems are open or entirely broken, and sidewalks are regularly overrun by bodabodas, taxis that have grown so rapidly and uncontrollably that they now dominate urban mobility. These riders, faced with mounting traffic and no clear regulations, often mount pedestrian paths or spill into green spaces. As a result, pedestrians are left with no safe space to walk, but they are now being arrested for using the very lawns.

Uganda, once known for its agricultural prowess and natural endowment, is now witnessing a sharp transition into a “BodaBoda Republic.” With youth unemployment on the rise and limited avenues for formal employment, many young Ugandans have turned to bodaboda riding as their only viable source of income. It is unfair, even absurd, to ask the city’s jobless and desperate youth to observe order in a system that provides them no alternative path to survival.

Instead of punishing symptoms, KCCA must address the root causes. A city cannot enforce order while ignoring inequality. It cannot claim to promote greening while simultaneously allowing planning gaps and enforcement failures to flourish. More dangerously, it cannot continue to allow law enforcement officers to engage in heavy-handed tactics that endanger the very citizens they are meant to protect. Urban order must meet urban empathy. Law enforcement officers must be trained not only in how to enforce the law but also in how to interact with vulnerable populations in a humane and just manner.

Namirembe Road stands out as a perfect example of the disconnect between urban vision and execution. Once celebrated as a pioneering, non-motorized zone for pedestrians and cyclists, it has since descended into an unregulated hub for bodaboda stages and taxi loading zones. What was designed as a green and accessible public space has been overwhelmed by the very forces it sought to regulate. If a flagship street like Namirembebacked by funding, international attention, and strategic planning, can fall into disrepair, then the rest of the city’s roads face an even grimmer reality.

The vision for a green Kampala should not merely focus on planting grass and arresting those who tread on it. It must include an urgent restructuring of the city’s informal transport sector, better urban planning, repair of key infrastructure, proper drainage systems, and protection of pedestrian walkways. Youth need meaningful opportunities in agriculture, innovation, and business, not just another warning not to step on the grass.

Kampala’s transformation must begin with a commitment to fairness and dignity. The beauty of a green city is not in how many trees it plants or how neatly its lawns are mowed. True beauty lies in how well it treats its people. Winston Churchill once called Uganda the Pearl of Africa because of its manicured lawns, but also because of its rich natural and human potential. To realize that potential in Kampala, we must stop policing the grass and start cultivating justice. The city’s future lies not in the color of its gardens, but in the character of its governance.