SOME PEOPLE ARE “BAYAAYE” BECAUSE IT IS THEIR LAST OPTION

Article by Johnious Tumusiime

Have you ever wondered why many youth in developing countries are “bayaaye”?! You might have ever, or maybe, you think it is the kind of life they prefer, or you think it is not your business to think about bayaaye and their life. I am one of those people that rarely take for granted anything affecting my countrymate, even though such thing may not be directly affecting me personally.

Let me in the first place give you the meaning of “bayaaye”! Bayaaye is a common term in Ugandan languages that is used to refer to “rogue people”. Bayaaye (rogue people) or Abayaaye (rogue people) is plural and its singular is Muyaaye (rogue) or Omuyaaye (a rogue) respectively. According to online dictionaries, a rogue (omuyaaye) is a mean, mischievous, bad, evil, or unprincipled person, who is often liked by people not minding his or her bad character. However, the same word, muyaaye is also commonly used to refer to refer to “hooligan” or “bad guy”. The lifestyle of omuyaaye or abayaaye is commonly referred to as kiyaaye lifestyle or buyaaye, while the acts of omuyaaye or abayaaye are commonly referred to as obuyaaye, or eby’ekiyaaye.

Uganda is one of the countries with many bayaaye, common everywhere, urban and rural but more in urban. Whereas, it is very bad, in the traditions of Uganda to be omuyaaye, and considered abnormal, many Ugandans are becoming bayaaye day and night.

I recently spent some time studying the life of bayaaye and came to understand the reason they choose to live such life. In fact, it is not anyone’s chice to be omuyaaye. The strongest reason people choose to lead the kiyaaye lifestyle is that they are poor, hopeless and worried!

Extreme poverty is the commonest characteristic among bayaaye. Well, there are some people who choose to live the kiyaaye lifestyle while they are not poor but they are the fewest, and, if well traced still, many of these start living this lifestyle while they are still young, poor and either hopeless or in hard struggles for hope, and end up getting addicted to this lifestyle.

One of the worst boosting agents of the kiyaaye lifestyle is discrimination. Discrimination, often being a result of the gap between the poor and the rich, or tribalism or religious beliefs causes hopelessness which in turn forces people, especially the youth to choose the kiyaaye lifestyle.

The other is poor upbringing of children by their family heads, which is also, on clear analysis, a result of poverty, discrimination, low education and hopelessness.

There is no way you can describe a muyaaye without the word “poverty”. Every muyaaye has, either in one’s background, history or present-day life the word “poverty”.

The government of Uganda has many times condemned obuyaaye, though the question remains, has the government done enough in preventing people from being abayaaye?

Keep following this site both on website and social media so you don’t miss the other articles coming to complement this one. In the following articles, we shall see how harmful it is to have many bayaaye in the country, why it is hard to fight obuyaaye, how best we can fight obuyaaye, how the bayaaye can be helped to overcome their challenges and become good citizens, etc.

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ACCIDENT SUSPECT ESCAPES MOB IN NDEEBA

STORY BY: OCHOLA ISAAC; EDITING DONE BY: RHONET ATWIINE

A young man in Ndeeba, alleged to have caused an accident at clock tower in Kampala at 7:40am has escaped lynching by the mob when police arrived just in time to rescue him.

Reports indicate that he had knocked down a motorist at clock tower which resulted into congestion by other motorists to defend their fellow.

The Toyota driver at fault who was avoiding to pay compensation fee decided to take off  from the  motorists who were already possessing extreme anger, thus scratching car bodies which were stuck  in traffic around Ndeeba Market.

According to eyewitnesses, nowhere he could escape from because the road was so busy. Therefore the motorist accident victim came over claiming for justice leading him to be on demand by the mob.

However, Ndeeba police came to his rescue in time and as well forced him to get outside the car.

Currently, this young man is at the police station as investigations are still going on.  

Ochola Isaac

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'POLITICAL ACTIVITIES COULD BE OF GREATER RISK THAN PLACES OF WORSHIP WHEN IT COMES TO SPREAD OF COVID-19'

Editorial: 

Great thanks to the government, health workers and fellow Ugandans for the struggles and sacrifices we are making in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic

However, I remain not convinced about the government's decision to let political activities go on the way they are doing but keep silent on the proposals to reopen places of worship and schools with safety guidelines.

I want to centre my argument today on the proposal to reopen places of worship because it looks already late with schools.

The Ministry of Health has always instructed us to keep a social distance, wash our hands and wear face masks while in public. However, there is no doubt that none of these was even thought about during campaigns for NRM Primaries. During the lineup elections of NRM that were held nationwide, water and soap were provided but their impact remains questionable given the condition in which they were used and trusted as the control measure to the spread of the virus. How does washing hands prevent me from picking Corona virus from the person I am lining behind or in front of with a close distance less than a foot and without any other protective instrument? At most polling stations (including mine), many people washed their hands but all squeezed in lines, just a few with masks on and none with covered hands. Should we say COVID-19 does not spread through political events? What difference is there, regarding spread of Corona virus, between gathering for worship and gathering for politics? Is it not gathering and congesting that aids spread of the virus? And in any case, which one is easier to control, campaign events or worship events? It is not justice at all, stopping people from meeting to discuss their Godliness and at the same time encouraging them to meet and discuss their politics. We must not forget the role of religious gatherings! Domestic violence is ruining the country, children are getting engaged in sexual acts, very young girls are getting married, child labour is becoming uncontrollable, families are breaking up, people are killing one another, land conflicts are increasing and this time with worse effects, assault is everywhere and several other immoral and inhuman deeds are rising and spreading everywhere! Ask why? People lack the counselling, spiritual guidance and inspiration they always got from their spiritual leaders. There are lots of things that cannot by any means go right unless people meet and discuss their Godliness.

Almost all religious leaders have on several occasions requested for reopening of places of worship and vowed to put into practice the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health regarding safe gathering during the COVID-19 Season.

Is it not much easier to limit the congregation size and their sitting organisation than doing the same for a political campaign gathering? I don't say we must forget about the virus and reopen churches and mosques but if the ongoing political activities in Uganda are considered healthy, then all places of worship should be reopened because they are far risk-free and requisite compared to the ongoing political events. We are a country of God and we cannot look down on Godly requirements while promoting the earthly ones. That is my submission. Thank you.

External Links for further reading on related stories:

Religious leaders have said they are ready for the reopening of worship places. They asked the Government to consider reopening them immediately -New Vision