I Love the Kabaka's Birthday Run,.........But

Now that the dust has settled, I can write about the Kabaka’s Birthday Run sponsored by M/s Airtel Uganda.   I am an intrepid runner and avid Buganda royalist. This is therefore one event that brings two of my best favorite at one point.    Even if I were remotely interested in running, I would do turn up at the starting line because it commemorates the birth of the most important man in my life as a Muganda.   However, I am starting to entertain the idea that waking up early on a wet morning like it was this year to go and not only show my support for the Kingdom, but also keep my self healthy is not worth the likely consequences.  My Kabaka wants me to be alive.  The crowd management at this event is the worst I have ever seen at any road race and I have been to a number across the globe over the last 15 years.  I have every reason to believe that it is an accident waiting to happen and unless the organizers seriously think about how to manage people at this event, soon there will be a very regrettable statistic.   I will limit myself to the experience at this year’s run but all the incidents I will write about have happened before to me and many countless runners some of have disappointingly decided to avoid the event altogether.

1.            Access to the venue of the event is limited to a small personnel gate (about 900mm wide) set within a wider gate of about 2500mm wide. Why the good people from Security do not open the entire gate is beyond me. After all there are about 4-5 scanners beyond that small access and there is every chance to control the enthusiastic people and ensure that they all end up in the security scanners. Caution tape is one thing that easily comes to mind.

2.            The start point is another case of careless management. While the announcer keeps saying that the 21km runners will be flagged off first, all runners including those that are not likely to run beyond the exit of the palace keep shoving and pushing and it’s only a miracle that no one has been trampled yet. I wonder how long God will keep us safe from our own reckless way of doing things.

3.            Finally, the finishing of the race for us non elite runners (a fancy way of describing snail runners) becomes a dodge and avoid affair, as we try to get around the swarm of 10km runners who have already completed their run and now are leisurely walking back to wherever they came from.  At that time, a body like mine, after 21km is simply going through the motions with almost zero control and being knocked over can take something as like as a chicken.  How I have managed to wriggle my way through these shameless individuals up to where the race began from in the last 3 years is more to do with luck rather than skill.

This is therefore to appeal to those managing this event to start thinking about safety seriously before we have a fatal accident.  It will be unfortunate for some of us who care so much about our safety to give us something that we cherish and look forward to every year just because we have got concerns about our wellbeing.


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