This woman is among the road cleaners that always keep Gulu city clean.Photo by Simon Wokorach
By Simon Wokorach
Gulu: The war raged on for over 20 years, the economy stagnated at its peak, lives lost and thousands were forcefully conscripted into the army while women were hunted for sex slavery.
The dusty murram streets and the obsolete balconies of the then Gulu Municipality were home to thousands of night commuters who sought refuge to flee abduction by the rebels.
Today, Josephine Ocaka could not recognize the streets which saved her life after she returned home from the United Kingdom and what she called home then now stands with towers and pavements.
At the height of the insurgency, her family shifted from Awach Sub County, now the new administrative centre for Gulu district local to the then Gulu Municipal, now a city and a face of northern Uganda.
It was such a destructive war not only on the economy of the region but the academics as well. On July 9, 1989, Ocaka and 6 other young girls from Scared Girls Senior Secondary School were abducted.
Although they were released a week later after a series of negotiations, it was the first abduction of learners in Gulu by the rebels of the Lord Resistance Army and the school was temporarily closed.
“We spent a few days there but we saw terrible things. People dying in front of you”? It wasn’t even the worst I saw. Nobody was safe and my parents escaped with us to the United Kingdom” Ocaka narrates.
Ms. Josephine had dreamt of returning to the land, although she is still haunted by her childhood memory for her classmates who died during the war but she is home again and reconnected to her loved ones.
“I never forgot my flag, the Uganda flag was always with me, in my bag, in my bedroom. But let me tell you this, it isn’t Gulu I left. Do I even recognize the streets we would sleep in”? Ocaka asked herself.
While in London, Ocaka noted that about 900 of those who fled the region would gather weekly to talk about home “everyone now wants to come back home and invest” She added.
Over time, Gulu City has transitioned from its origin of the colonial era. In 1906, it served to facilitate communications between settlers for transportation of agricultural produce.
Gulu became Town Council in 1974 under the Urban Authority Act of 1964 and was declared a Municipal in 1977 before transitioning into City through an Act of Parliament on July 1, 2020.
How indigenous monies build up its face
Even at the time of adversaries, the government and the donor communities gave hope to the people. There were messages of hope from the State and non-State Actors fighting for peace in the region.
The government Spokesperson Ofondo Opondo argued that, despite the destruction at interwar periods, the recovery of northern Uganda is 10 times better than that of the Luwero triangle.
“The new narratives here are shaped by development journalism which exposed this region to more opportunities in production and tourism potentials “Opondo explained.
He observed that” if you abdicate or in one way fail to speak on what builds up the society then what kind of society will you build”? Mr. Opondo asked.
Although he would see Gulu transform from the ashes of the war, his memory still lingers on early years of the conflict. He survived with injuries from a landmine while on his official duty to Kitgum District.
As a Political Commissar of the National Resistance Army, Mr. Opondo was posted to northern Uganda as the Bureau Chief of New Vision before crossing to Uganda Human Rights Commission as its investigator.
“I photographed dead bodies being exhumed from Alero in Nwoya and handed to their relatives for reburial. I still remember but also how I survived a landmine in Atanga from Pader” Opondo narrates.
But at the time President Museveni took over power in 1986, many of the Acholi people who occupied government buildings in Kampala were taken by surprise, many did not invest back home, Ofondo noted.
Between 1962 and 1986, the elites from Acholi were dominant in the government and had occupied government buildings from Kampala to Jinja and failed to build permanent structures back home.
They lived in those government houses until evicted when President Museveni dislodged Tito Okello, once evicted, many thought they would not come to government again and went to farming and trade.
“They went to farming and businesses and started investing back home. Today Gulu has continued to grow from the indigenous monies and create more opportunities for transformations” Opondo added.
While he commended Gulu for its rapid transformation but noted that a lot more is yet required for Gulu to be an agro-industrialized City to feed Uganda and Africa with supply of organic foods.
“Where the media plays its mandate of watchdog, we shall fight corruption and achieve more on infrastructural projects like roads and electricity for more investment opportunities” he said.
Ms. Harriet Nagudi was vending on the streets of Mbale while the war raged on in the North for years but shortly shifted to Gulu when the guns fell silent.
“We were all praying that the war should end. We must thank those who fought for this peace now that we can move from here to Mbale without any attack on the roads” Nagudi said during an interview.
Today, Nagudi has not only resettled in Gulu but supplies the residents here with matoke from Eastern Uganda. Every Sunday morning, she gets 440, 000 shillings from selling matoke in Gulu Main Market.
The valuation of property investment in Gulu City
With its rapid economic growth, the population of Gulu City also continues to grow at an annual growth rate of 3.0% according to the records from the City Council physical planning department.
The city cumulatively has 12,490 buildings at a gross value market of 81. 8 billion shillings but most buildings are concentrated in Laroo-Pece Division with 7918 properties valued at 55.3 billion shillings.
Within a radius of 265 square kilometers and a tarmac road network of 36 kilometers, Gulu City accommodates over 300,000 people living in 75,000 households.
The average person per household ranges from 3 to 6, meaning, with an influx of people looking up for economic opportunities, the city is yet to deal with its housing deficit.
The City Town Clerk Innocent Ahimbisibwe revealed in a recent interview that plans are underway to open more roads in the annexed areas of the city and connect houses with power.
He has however asked the developers whose buildings are dilapidated to refurbish them to match the approved standards of the physical plan of the city.
“The moment you have a sleeping city, the growth rate will be stunted but our night economy alone should tell you how people have them upon themselves to recover from the war” Ahimbisibwe noted.
The Acholi Prime Minister Micheal Otim, an economist and Policy Analyst who also works with the Ministry of local government attributed a sustained development of the city to its vantage position.
Mr. Otim noted that a huge investment in agricultural production in the region offers more opportunities to the city to spur its development.
He explained that people who came to trade within the city needed social services like roads, water, power, banking services and accommodation facilities which rapidly transformed the city.
“Putting up structures here at the time of the war was the highest risk nobody would want to take but this has changed now where people have choices and opportunities to invest” Otim further explained.
Gulu city sits in the major transit routes to South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo connecting merchants from Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda Tanzania and Somalia to markets in the Great Lake Region.
