Postcard from Jinja

Kariuki Mureithi writes from Jinja in the second of his reports from around the country in the run-up to Uganda's presidential election on 12 March

Jinja was once home to the most contented voters in Uganda. This was because the town was the country's economic hub.

Jinja's cotton mills were a household name, not just in East Africa, but much further afield.

Tourists flocked here in their thousands to see the source of Africa's longest river, the Nile, leaving behind highly valued foreign currency.

The town is also famous for its power generating plants.

Run down

But much of this is no more - the town and its environs now harbour some of the bitterest citizens of Uganda.

Museveni's campaigners are taking nothing for granted

These are people who have been rendered jobless by a conspiracy of a humiliating industrial decline and layoffs due to a deliberate government policy of economic liberalisation.

The cotton factories ground to a halt many years ago, not just because of poor prices on the world market, but because of neglect by the notorious government of General Idi Amin Dada.

By the time Amin was driven out of Uganda, Jinja was nothing but a mere shell of what was once the country's pride.

Promises

This is the Jinja that Uganda's six presidential candidates are trying to woo.

Of course, the majority of candidates have paid the town a courtesy call, but the man to watch here is the retired army colonel, Kizza Besigye, who has promised to revamp the town's industries and create more employment opportunities.

Besigye is promising to return Jinja to its former glory

In the meantime, the town's bicycle taxis, commonly known as "boda boda", continue to do a roaring business, ferrying campaign organisers and their supporters to various rally venues.

Also making a killing are the town's brass bands, which are being used to propagate the messages of the various candidates.

But perhaps the luckiest category of businessmen are the importers of whistles, which is a hot commodity among the campaign co-ordinators; they blow the whistles to drive home the various candidates' propaganda messages.

This has turned Jinja into a vibrant town in spite of the myriad economic woes bedevilling the area's residents.