Adverse Factors on Kagera Development

Kagera’s long distance from Dar es Salaam, coupled with poor infrastructure, imposes limitations on its accessibility. Until recently fairly long sections of the Dar- es-Salaam-Bukoba road were  untarmacked, forcing travellers to make a detour through Kenya and Uganda. Lake vessels that people relied on to ferry passengers and cargo are inadequate, and those which are still in operation are hardly seaworthy as result of poor maintenance. Until this year when the  newly upgraded runway was opened, only small aircrafts could land at Bukoba.

This geographical factor has had a negative impact on the cost of living in the region, as the transport element drives up the prices of consumer goods. As an example, a bag of cement which costs less than Tshs. 15,000 in Dar es Salaam sells for over Tshs 20,000 in Bukoba.

b)   War with Uganda’s Idi Amin

From 1972, hostilities between Uganda and Tanzania escalated until they came to a head in 1979 when a full-blown war was fought, following Amin’s annexation of parts of what is now Missenyi District. Being a battleground, Kagera suffered pillage and destruction. Four decades on, people are still apprehensive about their security, given the periodic volatility in neighboring countries.

c)   HIV/Aids

This pandemic first entered Tanzania from Uganda via Kagera. At that time it was at its most virulent, killing thousands and thousands. It left in its wake a trail of orphans, widows and widowers. In many a household both parents died and their kids were left behind to be looked after by their aging grandparents who, more often than not, were too poor to take good care of them. In some cases kids had to be farmed out. The scourge robbed Kagera of its work force and set it on the path to a downward spiral.

d)  Crackdown on Private Businesses

In 1983, Kagera  was specially targeted for a crackdown on smuggling and racketeering. Almost every entrepreneur was affected in the dragnet. Businessmen were incarcerated and their businesses blighted and properties expropriated. Even after many businessmen were exonerated by the courts, they were unable resume their businesses. What the crackdown did was, in effect, to wipe out serious entrepreneurial activity in the region.

e)  Decline of the Staple

The banana crop is Kagera’s staple food. Over the past four decades or so,  the crop has suffered attacks from a succession of seemingly impregnable pests, starting with panama, then nematodes and weevils and finally banana wilt. All efforts to contain the diseases have come to naught. As a direct consequence of these infestations, food security has taken a knock.

In 1996, a passenger-and-cargo steamer, MV Bukoba, sunk killing 800 – 1,000 people. Many families lost their sole breadwinners, some of whom were travelling to Mwanza on business. More than twenty years on, the promise of another vessel to replace the sunken one has yet to be fulfilled.

Next to agriculture, fishing has always been the most important economic activity for the people of Kagera, and the consumption of fish put the region on a sound nutritional footing. However, in recent years, fish stocks in Lake Victoria have been depleted on account of uncontrolled fishing. As a result, income from the lake is dead in the water as has the people’s sound nutritional status. Sadly, Kagera is now being ranked as one of the most malnourished regions in Tanzania.

The people of Kagera are trying to pick up the pieces following a 5.9-strong earthquake which hit  the region in September 2016, killing at least 17 people and leaving 16,144 families homeless. Since the government has declared its inability to help the victims build their houses, the region is faced with a serious humanitarian crisis.

In general Kagera boasts copious rainfall which is bimodal. Unfortunately, the year 2016 was unusually dry, actually the driest in decades. Crops were decimated, precipitating a food crisis and water sources dried up causing a serious water shortage in most of the villages.

Given the above-mentioned straitjackets, Kagerans have decided to establish an NGO whose primary objective would be not only to arrest the socio-economic decline but also to conceive and implement development initiatives that are sustainable, transformative, inclusive and socially viable. The NGO which is not-for-profit is registered under the name Bukoba Development Foundation (BUDEFO) and its membership is open to all Kagerans regardless of where they live and irrespective of their social status. Those who have already signed up to BUDEFO include: ordinary peasants in the villages, elected government leaders at the village, ward and district levels, members of parliament, business people, public servants, religious leaders and Kagerans living in the diaspora.

Incorporated into the BUDEFO structure are the faith-based networks that exist in the region so as to establish an easy and enduring presence at the grassroots. As a result, the Foundation is able to engage with the villagers and involve them in its plans as important stakeholders. That makes its approach more bottom-up than top-down.