Where Will They Play? Uganda’s Capital Struggles to Retain Increasingly Rare Open Spaces

KAMPALA, UGANDA — Boniface Ekungu strolls along a path that offers a view of his former playground. For over 100 years, the lot was a vibrant hub that brought the community together for football, netball and volleyball matches, but it is now empty and fenced off.

Ekungu, a footballer with Nsambya Football Club, had played on this piece of land since he was 6 years old. But he and other members of the Nsambya community, in central Kampala, no longer have access to their unofficial playground after the property owner, St. Peter’s Catholic Church, sold the land to a developer, without notice.

Now, Ekungu worries. To him, football is more than a pastime. It is a career.

“I grew up in a poor family where football was everything,” Ekungu says. “From playing, I was able to get scholarships from primary up to secondary school. I had dreams of getting scouted for better leagues and getting higher-education scholarships. But all of this is not possible, because where will the scouts find me?”

Ekungu’s football club has found a piece of land — also privately owned — behind the Kampala International University in Nsambya where they can play. But the owner plans to start charging a daily fee since many people now use it, a trend that’s becoming common in the city.

Disappearing spaces

The experience in Nsambya is emblematic of a bigger problem in Kampala where public recreational spaces have dwindled over time, fueled by a burgeoning population, land grabs and privatization of recreational areas.

The city’s population has reached about 1.75 million, according to a 2019 report by the Kampala Capital City Authority. About 4.5 million people also commute daily into the capital from nearby suburbs for work, further straining land use and resources.

With the sale of some green spaces, city residents now lack public places to unwind — the result of growth without planning for open spaces, according to a study by Advocates for Public Spaces, an organization working to protect public spaces in Uganda’s urban areas. The study estimates that the number of private and public open spaces in Kampala went down from around 40 in the 1970s to 30 in 2010. A statistical abstract by KCCA reports that, as of 2019, the city had only 10 public parks.

As recreational spaces diminish, locals have transformed privately-owned idle lots and fields at churches and schools into makeshift playgrounds, sometimes claiming them for decades without contest. But, like the church lot where Ekungu kicked a ball, even these spaces are disappearing, and a new trend is emerging. Commercial fields such as futsal turfs — spaces where people pay to play a usually-indoor variation of five-a-side football — are becoming popular. Although they fill the gap for a section of the population, not everyone can afford the fees.

Lubega James grew up playing on the Kigo Prisons Primary School pitch in Kampala. The 40-year-old says his older family members used to play there as well.

“In 2013, we started a football league and our team played countrywide. I personally revamped the pitch by putting stands for people to sit during the games and fenced it off, knowing it was owned by our community,” he says.

Then in 2019, Buganda Land Board, a company that manages land belonging to the Buganda Kingdom, sold the property to an investor and promised the football team another playground.

“We have not received anything yet, and the only thing we have got is ghost land,” Lubega says, referring to land that belongs to someone else.

“Many [community] teams like Kigo, Busabala, Masajja, Kanaba, Lubugumu relied on this playground. Now most of them have dissolved, including mine. This has killed people’s passion,” he says.

But the Kigo community has legal rights over the land under Section 29 of the Land Act because they occupied and utilized it, unchallenged by the registered owner, for 12 years, says Lester Kalanzi, a partner at Kalanzi and Company Advocates in Kampala.

Kalanzi adds that it was not the Buganda Land Board that sold the land, but the Buganda Kingdom itself since the board acts on behalf of its king under the Restitution of Assets and Properties Act of 1993. Regardless of who sold the land, Kalanzi says the sale would be illegal if it happened “without consulting the community who have used the land for over 100 years and enjoy legal rights over it.”

Despite numerous attempts, the Buganda Land Board did not respond to Global Press Journal’s requests for a comment on the matter.

The situation is the same in Nsambya, Kalanzi says, where St. Peter’s Catholic Church should have consulted the community first or even given them first opportunity to buy the property.

St. Peter’s Catholic Church did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

An issue of concern for everyone

Diminishing public spaces should concern everyone, says David Esuku, the city authority’s acting manager of education operations.

“Individuals need to actively speak up about conserving these spaces. But you find that there is a lack of appreciation of the critical role these spaces play in terms of recreation and health for everyone, regardless of economic status,” he says.

Esuku says that the city cannot protect these spaces alone because of interference from “powerful people.”

“We are working on getting some of these spaces back — the cases are pending in court — and we have protected what’s left through fencing it off,” Esuku says. He adds that the KCCA inherited most of the problems relating to the sale of public land from its predecessor, the Kampala City Council.

The authority requested that the leases of those who took over public land be canceled, Esuku says. “The Uganda Land Commission has refused to do so despite the ministry requesting.”

However, Andrew Nyumba, acting secretary of the Uganda Land Commission, denies this, saying the commission already canceled the leases. He admits that in the past, the commission made mistakes while allocating land by failing to seek proper consent before allocation. However, he says, they are working to fix these mistakes by consulting user groups before leasing out land.

Mugambule Isaac, landscape supervisor for the city, says the KCCA plans to pass the Urban Greening Infrastructure Ordinance to protect green spaces. “We encourage the private sector, religious institutions and cultural institutions to preserve these spaces for the public good.”

A new trend — privatization

As community spaces disappear, commercial spaces such as futsal turfs are becoming common.

The trend started in the country in 2015, says Junju Hamzah, chairman and founder of Futsal Association Uganda. As of June 2023, Hamzah counted 83 futsal turfs.

Sam Hamule, the owner of one such pitch, says he charges from 20,000 to 50,000 Ugandan shillings (about 5 to 13 United States dollars) per hour, depending on the time of day.

Alfred Deng, a corporate businessman, only picked up an interest in futsal after his home pitch was taken over by investors. “There was no other choice for me since my neighborhood no longer has a playground, and I love football because of the health benefits and socializing.”

Commercial spaces, however, are not a viable solution, says Boban Tusubira, the Nsambya Football Club coach. He says they are not affordable for most people living in the city. “The growth of sport facilities like futsal turfs and grounds is good for business owners, but who benefits? Most Ugandans can’t afford such facilities.”

Kahema Jamedu, a football coach and mental health advocate, agrees. He says these kinds of spaces play an essential role in uniting people and improving mental health.

“This is important because mental problems are increasing everywhere. These places should be free and available to the public, as it was in the past, especially to children who can learn to be strong here,” Jamedu says.

Meanwhile, Ekungu still hopes to pursue a career in football. “I will work with what’s within my reach, because what is the alternative?”