The militancy and ruthlessness with which the manager of Homeland Bus, Gulu, handled me on December 30, 2016 was not only one that evoked painful memories of the adversities of travelling to northern Uganda by public means but projected a serious customer care deficiency in many enterprises in Uganda.
Up until 2pm of December 30, 2016, Homeland Bus was still booking passengers on its VIP fleet that departs Gulu for Kampala at 6pm. I made a block booking for five passengers the day before and our telephone numbers were taken. Travellers report at 5pm.
When we showed up for the trip, we were treated to a somber and surprise reception. Looking at us as strangers, the lady at the counter casually and softly said: “You mean you were not told that there is no bus tonight?” I was at their terminal at 2:15pm. They had my telephone numbers but I was not called.
Apparently, they knew the day before that there would be no bus on December 30 but kept this to themselves!
Cognizant that disappointments occur, management could have done better to handle the situation. There were only junior officials at the front, unable to volunteer any explanation, apology or even render any advice.
After some insistence, we met a one Ronald who was sitting behind the booking office. Our expression of disappointment and grief at their handling of this matter only opened a Pandora’s box. He simply dug in and blew us off with a tirade of assertions of how he had a choice of responding to us or ignoring us altogether, that he is a learned person and would not take any lecture from anyone.
Stumping his foot, Ronald promised not to apologize to any aggrieved person on behalf of Homeland merely for a bus that did not turn up.
Recent debacles on Homeland’s VIP fleet have ranged from unexplained stoppages along the way, a non-responsive staff who will not care about a complaint about a window that just does not open, to a socket and Wi-Fi that does not function soon after a resounding assurance from the manager. We were lucky to have our cash refund effected.
If someone other than Ronald owns Homeland Bus, then you had better think about the quality of your personnel. However, if Homeland belongs to the said Ronald, then I would like to appeal to transport sector investors that there are gaps to be filled on the Northern route!
Patrick Okumu-Omony,
okumu-omony@stewardsadvisory.org.
A word to professional elites
The elites are a group of “educated” people, within which there are three classes: the super elites, the professional elites and sub-elites. The super elites are the ruling class; heads of state, ministers and other personalities.
The professional elites include lawyers, medical doctors, lecturers, university graduates. The sub-elites comprise secondary school dropouts, ordinary soldiers, clerks and typists, among others. In Uganda, the sub-elites outnumber the other two groups combined.
The professional elites, perhaps because of their educational achievement, have an overrated sense of self-importance, believing that they are qualified to rule the country.
They feel they are the right people to either challenge the legitimacy of the regime in power or not, either to undermine the authority or not.
If professional elites fail to unseat the ruling elites, they may sell themselves off to the ruling elites or engage in acts of calculated collaboration, to win the favor of the government in power. Who remembers the Andrew Mwenda of 2000? Who remembers the Chris Obore of 2005?
Who remembers Beti Kamya in 2006? Who remembers the likes of Ofwono Opondo? These are professional elites in their acts of collaboration.
Marvin Kushaba,
0705873431.
Set Mumbere free
Whether the Omusinga wa Rwenzururu, Wesley Mumbere, is guilty or innocent regarding what happened in Kasese, given his status in Uganda, I concur with leaders who demand his unconditional release.
This is because top leaders in Uganda came to power after waging a destructive war against a legal government and also committed many other crimes such as robbing banks, stealing people’s food and other assets for survival.
A government led by leaders of that caliber lacks the moral authority to sue Mumbere for the very crimes they themselves committed.
Ugandans are peace-loving people. We should reject violent means of solving misunderstandings in Uganda.
Kennedy Kabonge,
kabongek@yahoo.co.uk.
New HIV Test & Treat policy good
The ministry of health recently released new HIV/Aids guidelines, announcing the prevention strategy of “Test & Treat”.
This means that any person who tests HIV-positive is supposed to be enrolled on antiretroviral treatment immediately in line with World Health Organisation’s global target of eliminating HIV/Aids by 2030 and the ambitious 90-90-90 target.
In pushing for Test & Treat as an HIV prevention strategy, we should not overlook the element of programs performing poorly when it comes to retaining patients in care after diagnosis or initiating individuals on ART before they fall ill. It won’t be enough to avail treatment because some patients tend to dodge it until they are clinically sick.
Besides, execution of this policy on a wide scale is going to prove logistically and economically-perplexing and may overwhelm the prevailing health services.
So, promoting HIV testing should be the leading step in accessing care since it is being strongly advocated not only as a likely HIV prevention tool but also as one way of normalising and destigmatising HIV.
To make the policy achievable, a better understanding of the obstacles to testing, knowledge of test result and the subsequent linkage to care should be attained to create vital operational modifications to service delivery.
Joseph Wasswa,
josy28was@gmail.com.
letters@observer.ug