This Is Uganda

This is Uganda My motherland My home that I love so much Boom, boom, boom,boom Another prominent leader has been shot dead Who is it? Abiriga, the yellow man Panic here, panic there Some arrests here and there And that’s it He is gone And the killers too are nowhere to be seen This is Uganda Around that time, it’s party here and party there Many of my brothers and sisters have come to the beginning of the end of their time in school and some totally done The graduation has brought well-wishers, relatives, friends and family from different places Happiness is all in the air But for many, the excitement ends there Because months and years after that, they are still hoping to find their first job and the hopes seem to be withering down and getting further like the sun setting at dusk Some have chosen paths totally different from what they studied for The professional doctor is now a trader The one that studied engineering is now a farmer This is Uganda The neighbor’s dogs are feasting on meat, chicken bones or even the chicken itself and maybe some serious Dog food sold in supermarkets but they slept on empty stomachs the previous night, The mother is the main breadwinner for the husband abandoned them There is very thin hope for a meal the next day Maybe a Good Samaritan will do a miracle But it certainly is not going to be their most immediate neighbor While kids from well-to-do families are picked from the gates of their parents’ homes to go to school and brought back later in the evening, Somewhere in the same age range or slightly older has also woken up to start his/her day With his/her old & dirty sack on the back, held by the neck, he traverses the whole village throughout the day in search for scrap metal, plastics and some metallic cans that he/she hopes to sell off and find a little something to buy some food and also enjoy some ‘luxuries’ like maybe buying a secondhand T-shirt/Dress Imagine that! This is Uganda We pay for justice Some pay to deny other justice And that’s the way it is A police officer will ask you for a bribe openly with no shame And that’s the order of the day Disguised as a small token for ‘Ka-soda’ or ‘Ka-lunch’ This is Uganda