Lords Diary: Lord McConnell
Lord McConnell (centre) visiting the Kampala Capital City Authority, Uganda
4 min read
Long distance travel could have created some fear and apprehension after all the restrictions of the past two years. My visit to Uganda, involving two long flights in either direction, instead generates adrenaline.
The pleasure of returning to places previously visited, exploring fresh locations, meeting new people and learning new things is real. Hopefully the ups and downs of the pandemic are behind us and there will be more opportunities like this in the months ahead.
I am struck by the clarity and efficiency of the testing rules and operation in and out of Uganda. In advance of my departure from the UK, a negative PCR test is compulsory. At Entebbe airport new arrivals are ushered immediately into individual cabins for another PCR test which must be booked and paid for in advance. Thoughtful but efficient medical staff take samples and send us on to the passport queue. After a couple of hours waiting in the hotel, the result arrives, and business can begin.
The same determination to avoid spreading Covid is apparent when leaving the country too. A PCR test in the hotel, again with the result quickly available, must be shown before even entering the airport complex to begin the journey home.
Uganda has experience with the management of the epidemics. Although they have capacity challenges managing Covid in the general population, they do know the importance of managing arrivals and departures. We could have learnt something from this in 2020.
I am here to mediate in a dispute. A local community feels the authorities have marched ahead with new infrastructure while ignoring their needs and rights. Local people want to make sure that any resettlement maintains their income, even if their lives are very basic. The authorities want to make improvements that benefit the whole city and they want to move ahead without costly delays. Bringing these two sides together is a challenge but surely never impossible. After daily shuttle diplomacy between the two sides, thankfully they speak together for the first time on my final day in Kampala.
Uganda has experience with the management of the epidemics
On a weekend afternoon, when there are no meetings in the diary, I take the chance to visit the “Source of the Nile”. I have been looking forward to seeing the Ripon Falls but, unfortunately, I am told the creation of a dam in the 1950s removed the falls from the local scenery. Today, the Source of the Nile is in the middle of a connection between Lake Victoria and the Nile itself where a floating structure creates a photo opportunity, selling local souvenirs. I was a bit disappointed but glad to have a chance to visit Jinja and be out of Kampala for a few hours during such a busy trip. Having mentioned this “discovery” on Twitter, I was deluged with the many claims from elsewhere in the region to be the “real” source of the Nile. Home or abroad, Twitter’s potential for division is alive and well.
Visiting Uganda is always interesting. The country benefits from the extraction of fossil fuels and the standard of living here would be significantly worse without that economic activity – or a transition to a better alternative. Meanwhile, however, Uganda is directly affected by climate change – there is less snow on the mountains, the rainy season has changed its pattern and on my arrival in Kampala it is interesting to spot the brown patches in local parks that would never have existed at this time of year in years gone by. The chief executive of the National Environmental Management Authority shares his stories of COP26 in Glasgow, but he and his team have a difficult job. My observations reinforce the absolute need for a just transition in this country where they have a delicate balance between the existing fossil fuel economy and a net-zero future designed to protect the very environment that makes this country so precious.
Lord McConnell is a Labour peer
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