FEATURE

By Ronald Musoke

henever it shines a lot, usually it

is an indication that someone will
drown in the river, says Janet
Kyakimwa. The 35 year old woman knows
a thing about River Nyamwamba in west-
ern Uganda on the edges of the Rwenzori
Mountains. She has grown up on its banks
in the shadows of the mountain in Kasese
Municipalitys Bulembia Division. She
recalls how, as a child, her parents told her
never to play in the river.
She says she in turn has passed down this
belief to her own children. She has heard


like, have stayed stuck still in the middle of

had to be slaughtered to free them. She says

she knows at least two children who disap-
peared in the river.
Kyakimwa belongs to the Bakonzo, the
dominant tribe in this part of Kasese district.
They are mainly traditionalists who vener-
ate River Nyamwamba. Ndyoka the god of
all rivers dwells in this river. They believe
when Ndyoka is unhappy with people who
have violated it over the years, River Nyam-
wamba unleashes its fury.
Nyamwamba last showed its fury in May
this year. It left some damage. But it was
nothing like happened the same month in

be seen to this day, along a stretch of close
to 10kms right from Bulembia School

the Kabarole-Kasese highway. The boulders
it carried remain in their various sizes and
shapes. At the nearby Kilembe Hospital,
tales of dead bodies being washed away
from the mortuary are still fresh. By the
time the river calmed down, a dozen deaths
were reported by Police while the Red Cross
recorded up to 10,000 displaced people.
Thousands of pupils from the eight schools
in the municipal division were blocked for

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es and residential houses were extensively
damaged or swept away.
The Bakonzo believe the new danger is
because the Bathahwa (spiritual mediums)
who are responsible for regularly cleansing
Nyamwamba are dying fast and leaving the
community without intercessors with the
river.
One of the prominent Bathahwa was
called Mburamushenyi. The story goes that
he used to study the mood of the river and

down Nyamwamba. But since he died, the

river has been more devastating.
Godfrey Kabyanga Baluku, the mayor
of Kasese town says traditionally people
believe one way the angry gods show their
-
tains.For this reason, the Bakonzo have
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June 05 - 11, 2015

Devastation: When River Nyamwamba burst its banks in 2013, thousands of Kilembe reisdents were
left homeless. INDEPENDENT PHOTO/RONALD MUSOKE

Secrets of Kaseses
river of death
Tracing the origins of River
E
clans or families associated with manag-
ing the river. Once Ndyoka is annoyed, he
unleashes his fury, Kabyanga says while
laughing in a suggestive manner that shows
he possibly does not mean what he says.
Yet very quickly he recalls an incident
that, he says, happened 36 years ago. This
time, it was the god of the mountains,
Kitasamba who punished the Bakonzo by
denying them rainfall for a transgression
the mayor does not name.
He remembers seeing elders, both men
and women, climbing the mountains with
brooms.
They swept all the curses down and

were done, they descended the mountains
and threw the brooms in the nearby Lake
George. It rained immediately. May be the
gods are angry, I dont know, he says.
Even Augustine Kooli, the senior environ-


the Nyamwamba legend. He says that if one

wishes to understand the traditional beliefs,
one needs to study the names behind
Nyamwambas tributaries.
There is River Muryambuli which is asso-
ciated with eating sheep in Rukonzo, and
River Nzuranja which is associated with
beating, and River Sine which is associated
with a type of coloured goat.
Our elders say River Muryambuli was


animals to calm down these rivers, he says.
But Israel Masereka, a middle-aged
retired teacher who is now a local trader
says although his grandfather, Kalemire
Kasereka, told him many years ago about
the same things, it is possible the lost chil-
dren Kyakimwa is talking about drowned

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ful of the traditional beliefs.

FEATURE

Canon Josephat Bwalhuma, the Diocesan

Secretary of South Rwenzori Diocese also
seems to disagree with the traditionalists.
He says what has happened in the past
three years is nothing but a natural disaster
which can be tamed.
When something of that magnitude

natural and other superstition, he says.

Beyond the Nyamwamba myth

Beside the Nyamwamba legend, there is

one other important aspect, perhaps more


All the people interviewed by The Inde-
pendent concurred on one thing: River

Alex Kwatampora Binego who is the
project manager of Tibet-Hima Mining Co.
Limited, the new concessionaire trying to
revive Kilembe copper mines was raised
in Kilembe. His father, Michael Binego,
worked at the copper mines between 1957
and 1992 for the then vibrant Kilembe
Mines Limited.
Kwatampora says when Falconbridge

and realised that the western side of Kilem-
be was more mineralized than the eastern
side of the valley, they needed to tame the
environment around Kilembe to ensure
easier exploitation of the copper ore.
Kwatampora says Nyamwamba origi-


you face Kasese town downhill. But the
Canadians diverted it from its original

course to reclaim the land for infrastruc-

tural development. But the diversion came

every rain season, as it perhaps tried to get
back onto its old path.
In response, Falconbridge Africa came

built retention walls and gabions and they
also installed an early warning system
a siren. This would alert people to go to

Bulembia School in 1982 when he was


retention wall near the school. The pupils
had to be evacuated from the school.But
that was the time Kilembe mining complex
was still well managed and well-equipped.
He says there was an excavator per-
manently stationed at the rivers banks to
keep the channel clear while the geology
department would monitor the river and
give timely advice and warning.
Falconbridge never left anything to
chance; between January and March, they
used to de-silt the river, widen the chan-
nel, check the walls and reinforce them in
case of wear and tear, he says.
They would repair the walls and
put new gabions in case some had been
washed away, big boulders would be
blasted and removed. By the time the
rains would come in April and May, the

equipment (D8 and D10 excavators) was

there and it was stationed in the river all
year round. He says Nyamwamba is only
trying to get back to its original course fol-
lowing three decades of neglect.
The bunkers and gabions have never
been rebuilt or maintained for the last 40
years and if you ask engineers, the lifespan
of a gabion is 40 years, he says.
You can imagine from 1982 (when he
last saw excavators working in the river),
nothing has ever been done for a river that
deposits about a million tonnes of boulders

If you dont de-silt it, you get the results
that you got in 2013a 31 year accumula-
tion of boulders. Kwatampora, who is a
geologist, says the volume of water that

because it has no clear channel, it moves on

top of the boulders, causing it to burst its
banks whenever it rains.
Given the gradient, the velocity is quite

its way with all its contents, he says.

Still, other environmental experts insist

poor management of the river channel over

the last 30 years.

The Independent that in February this year;

he was part of a team comprising experts

from the Uganda Wildlife Authority
(UWA) and the Rwenzori Mountaineering
Services that did a seven-day expedition
to the mountain peaks to establish the
status of tourism services in the Rwenzori
National Park.

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tus of ecosystem degradation following the


up to 300 sq km of dry bog. This is mainly
dry vegetation and dry mud. Usually it
is this bog alongside other endemic veg-
etation such as tussocks which controls

discovered that the entire western part of
the mountain was completely burnt down.
Only bare rocky ground remained. Soon,
the rains came in March-May, 2013 and
swept everything downhill leaving behind
only a rocky ground down the valley.
The endemic vegetation is growing back.
But it could take years to recover. Kooli

-

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sity of the rains continues, there is a high
possibility that Kasese will continue to suf-

back, he says.

Heavy toll on Tibet-Hima

mining operations

three years have proved a challenge for
the Chinese who acquired Kilembe Mines

swept away everything, Kwatampora
says,We had equipment and other impor-
tant geological data but this was swept
overnight.
He says fortunately, the management
had captured and transferred over 90% of
vital geological information.
Tibet-Hima is doing costly remedial
work to strengthen the banks of the river.
However, they say, the government needs
to begin building the gabions and the
retainer walls which collapsed during the

adds that because Nyamwambas banks
have over the years lost their riparian veg-

together, thanks to the vegetations elabo-

rate root system, there is urgent need to
plant bamboo to fortify the banks.
In addition, Kooli says,the integration of
climate change and the environment into
socio-economic planning will need to be
adopted by the central and local govern-
ments to avert future losses.
Unless they do that, they might as well
have to put up a budget for reconstructing
the bridges every year.
June 05 - 11, 2015

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