Terrorists usually have a cause. You may not agree with their cause but they have it, and it drives them to attack much stronger forces, take crazy risks and sometimes deliberately kill themselves with intention to inflict some damage, however relatively small, as suicide bombers.
Many of us never dreamt remotely that we would live long enough to see terrorists without a cause emerging amidst us. But here we are, at least in Uganda, with acts of terror without a cause manifesting frequently. A fortnight or so ago, a man drove a bus full of schoolchildren into the path of a moving train. Because there was no barrier at the railway crossing, a human signaller stood in the road and waved vehicles to stop, even as the powerful lights of the train were on, that morning and the sharp, loud hoot could be heard a mile away. The bus driver insisted on disputing the small space with the train, which hit the rear of the vehicle, throwing it onto the ground, where death occurred.
Barely a week later, the driver of a bus carrying about a hundred school kids on tour, hundreds of kilometres away from their Kampala school and homes, was warned by locals in eastern Uganda to stop until they got a better vehicle to come and continue their journey. The bus had broken down twice and photos later showed that its worn tyres had no treads left. The driver and teachers on the bus ignored and the journey continued to certain doom, sniffing out over thirty lives.
These are not rare occurrences, as everyday some fifteen lives are lost in senseless, avoidable crashes on Ugandan roads. A million boda-boda bikes carry a few million passengers daily, though almost none of the riders is compliant with the rules of using the roads. Only a small fraction of the riders are even qualified or licensed, yet they are allowed to kill/carry passengers daily.
It is not only on the road that terrorism is carried out. Biological and Chemical warfare are also under way. Many workers in our towns eat a lunch of beans with either maize meal, potatoes, bananas, rice, yams or another of our many starchy foods. Beans are the constant, in combination with the starches. But damn dried beans take ages to cook, and our makeshift restaurateurs have found a solution, so we believe. They drop some Panadol tablets in the pot where the beans are boiling, so they soften in rapid time, we are told. Saves on energy bills. Resultant cancers can take care of themselves. Inspection of places where food is prepared? The places are informal in the first place.
And you want to eat some roast sausages? Rest assured that the cheapest place on earth to get them is Kampala, like 20 US cents a delicious pair. Heaven knows where they are obtained from, but some genius economist must be advising these roadside chefs. Nobody said they are from stock nearing expiry in supermarkets. It is just a terrorist’s secret that they are so cheap in all dingy corners of Kampala.
You also don’t want to know why every other small kiosk is allowed to sell hard liquor to persons of all ages. Thousands of kiosk operators are targeting the youth, to ensure that the society has no hope of recovering from the chemical terrorism.
At this rate, there is no need for whoever doesn’t wish us well to make any sinister political or military plot to finish off this nation. We are doing it ourselves through our causeless terrorism. But maybe it has a cause; profit motive, stupid!
