An Irish doctor is standing for the local council of the Ugandan capital's biggest slum, writes JODY CLARKEin Kampala
DUCKING HIS way under the squatting rooftops of Makindye, slapping backs and pumping fists through an obstacle course of potholes and open drains, Dr Ian Clarke emerges from the skulking passageways of Kampala’s biggest slum to a crowd of 200 cheering supporters.
“Mwa Doctor Akalulu,” they shout, “give the doctor your vote,” as the Armagh man, an Irish Coast Guard cap on his head, pulls himself up on to the back of a pick-up truck and takes a microphone into his hands.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he says, struggling through some lines of Lugandan written on a loose sheet of paper before launching into English.
“My name is Dr Ian Clarke and I am running for the position of chairman of Makindye division.”
He didn't have to say. Everyone knows about the Mzungo, the white man looking to represent the interests of Makindye's 800,000 residents – and expectations have never been higher.
“I want you to give that man a message,” says Joseph Mulabya (27), stepping over a pool of broken glass and water to get himself heard. “The next time he must run for mayor of Kampala and then, for president. He will be an example to our politicians on how to do things properly.”
A first-timer to politics, the crowd’s expectations of what Clarke can do seem to be based more on hope than solid evidence. However, sickened by the failure of their current representative to provide even the most basic of services, from public toilets to garbage collection, it’s hard to find anyone who won’t give him their vote in the local election on March 2nd (the national election is on February 18th).
“I am voting for him because he isn’t here for wealth,” says Abdulwahabu Ssemuwa (23), an Ankole from eastern Uganda, the tribe of President Yoweri Museveni and therefore, he says, an NRM (National Resistance Movement) man. “The doctor has already made his money. He doesn’t want the job so that he can go build a house for himself.”
Why a successful businessman and medical doctor, the founder of the city’s International Hospital, does want the job is another question, but the image of a bike on each of his election posters gives some indication.
“When I first came to Uganda in 1987, the country was completely devastated from the war,” says Clarke, a graduate of Queen’s University in Belfast.
Idi Amin’s murderous eight years in power were followed by the Ugandan bush war (1980-86), which left 500,000 people dead, according to some estimates.
“When people finally got things together, the first thing they got was a mattress. Then it was a bike and then iron sheets for the roof of their house. So when I saw people on bikes, I thought it was a definite symbol of development. It’s good exercise as well.”
He has used one, an ancient gearless Hero from India, to travel around the district campaigning.
Clarke founded and runs the International Medical Group, a health conglomerate that operates everything from the private International Hospital Kampala to an air ambulance service and teaching hospital for nurses.
Employing more than 700 staff, it’s a busy job for anyone but, frustrated by the lack of basic services on offer to the 800,000 people who live in Makindye division, he says he felt compelled to stand for election.
“There has been a failure to provide very basic services such as fixing potholes, collecting rubbish, maintaining the drainage systems and making sure there are toilets for people in slums.”
The job means making sure that the money which comes from the central government is distributed properly to provide services to the community.
“I’m only doing it because I think it is a doable kind of thing. If I couldn’t deliver some services, I don’t think I would stand.” The problem is management and corruption, he says, with the providers of basic services that should be free often asking for money before they deliver them.
However, standing as an independent, he has already begun to irk his main opponent with the simple election slogan of “good roads, good health and development”.
The incumbent, local council chairman Moses Kirungi, has claimed that Clarke is not a Ugandan citizen. He argues that Clarke has just permanent resident status and not citizenship.
“He doesn’t even have a passport,” Kirungi recently said, arguing that it was a “grave mistake” to allow a foreigner to stand for office in the country. “That is a violation of the constitution of Uganda.”
For his part, Clarke says all his papers are in order. Meanwhile, reaction to his candidature has been overwhelmingly positive, with newspaper columns and letters pages brimming with enthusiasm for his candidature.
“Local politics is about service delivery, not politics. Collecting garbage, building public toilets, public health measures so we don’t have raw sewage in our drainage, decent roads that are properly tarmacked . . .
“This time I’ve had a lot of people saying I don’t actually vote, but I will this time. It helps that I have a track record and not an unknown white man. I’m part of the community here, so I feel I need to take some responsibility and put myself in the fray.”