Monday, January 17, 2011

DOING BUSINESS AS A PERSON WITH DISABILITY IN KAMPALA
By Brian Ssenoga Kimuli
To some Kampala dwellers every morning comes like the past mornings, but for Joseph Kintu a father of two, a married man and business entrepreneur everyday in his life is a different one. His comes with uncertainty, fear and a lot of speculation and optimism which mostly end up not met. Kintu 36 is a person with disability, one among the vendors at Nakivubo mews but his is an extra ordinary story for he has spent 20 years at this place doing business at the same time battling KCC. This is how he tells his story:
“I have spent twenty years on the street doing business, I came as a young boy now I am a man with a wife and two beautiful children a boy and a girl. So no one can deceive me about any matters of business and street life. I know most of those KCC law enforcement officers, unless he/ she were assigned yesterday” he says.
By the mare look into his eyes one cannot fail see that Kintu has really gone through much on the streets. “Street business is not easy” he says. “You need a lot of patience here; sometimes the city council comes and impounds our staff not even minding about our physical disabilities. And when your staff has been taken to court , one thing you must do, do not follow up just look for some money somewhere else and start once again or else you will taken to Luzira as you try to get your staff back. You see we have a motto here; save yourself first before you save your business (we nunule nga tonaba ku nunula maali).
As if that is not enough some of these city council law enforcement officers go ahead and rip them of their money as they try to save their property from being confiscated by the law enforcers. Asked why and how kintu only has this to say; “you have no way out because it is the only source of income you’ve . Either you give him something and he releases you property or he takes it and your children go without school fees” he says. But how does one benefit from such an act? “Both parties involved benefit. He releases my staff and I continue working and he also gets something to live on. It is a fair game. Law enforcers are also people, they need money” says kintu, frowning.
Given their state of immobility, persons with disabilities conducting business along the Nakivubo channel have now devised means of easing their movement and saving their property in case of any emergency. They cooperate well with their able bodied counterparts who quickly rap up everything and hide it from those who want to confiscate them. “If you can look around, where there is a person with disability, the closest neighbor is one who is able bodied, that is for security purposes” says one Jamil Byakatonda selling padlocks.
Natural hazards like rain have also proved a menace to business in this area. It being at the biggest drainage channel in the city during rainy days it floods and business is not easy here. “Some of us do not have legs, you walk by your hands and when it rains you either swim in the mad or stay at home till the place is dry” says Joseph Kintu.
But where do they get their capital from, do they acquire loans? Well it is even more complicated because some financial institutions fear to lend them money because of the nature and size of their businesses. Aisha Nasuuna mother of four also a PWD attributes this to the fact that any time their property can be confiscated and no one knows when this is going to happen yet there is no security to that. “But also many of us never want to pay back loans despite that” she says. Just like kintu she believes that it is God sends them customers others wise their physically able competitors would have pushed them out of business. She boosts of her bungalow in Bweyogerere Bbuto zone, paying for her children’s school fees and looking after her sister and ailing mother. They also complain about the poor leadership among themselves and the unyielding nature of their member of parliament Nalule Sophia who they accuse of never coming back to her electorate to inform them of any proceedings ever since she was elected in 2006. “You don’t even hear that she said a word in parliament” commented one of them only identified as Kamenke. “ even we don’t know what happened to NUDIPU they last communicated to us in 2009 and got lost ever since, so we are on our own” says Kintu Joseph
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