Lt. Kelly Slothrop

Another thing about Kampala worth mentioning is the prescient path of destruction I followed over my brief stay there. On Saturday, March 13th, I visited both Kasubi Tombs and Makerere University, the former of which is pictured below (notice the tiny old lady sitting in the entry way - this straw hut is real big). Kasubi tombs is the site of royal burial for a number of Baganda Kings, Baganda being the traditional area of the largest ethnic group in Uganda. It's also a UNESCO site for being "the largest straw hut in the world." On Tuesday, March 16th, it burned to the ground. The following morning, it was the site of a politically-charged shooting of two protestors by police. The now only symbolic Baganda King, or Kabaka, is opposed to President Museveni, who insisted on visiting the tombs in the immediate aftermath following the fire. Protestors opposed to Museveni and his reigning National Resistance Movement (NRM), tried to block his entrance. Police fired into the crowd.

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At almost the same time at Makerere University - the flagship school of higher education in Uganda - a security guard shot three Kenyan students involved in campus politics. My short tour of the University on the previous Saturday was not quite so exciting.