Kampala City is calm today as Uganda votes.
The usual hustle and bustle of the city is gone as people choose to either stay at home or to slowly walk to polling stations. Despite the lack of activity, the police are taking no chances. They have deployed heavily throughout the city, deploying hundreds of motorized and foot patrols.
Regional police commanders in Wandegeya, Old Kampala, Kiira Road and Central Police Station all report that no election-related incidences have been made known to them. However they anticipate a busy day ahead as the number of people at the polling stations grows.
The Jinja Road police commander, Dennis Kamugisha, says he is preparing for a peaceful election day. He repeats a call by the Inspector General of Police for people not to panic, but to expect the vote to be free and fair.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of police officers waited for transport Outside Jinja Road and other stations in the city. They appeared to be stranded, unaware of how they would leave their bases for the rest of Kampala.
Gerald Twishime, the Wandegeya Police Station commander, insists that there is no transport problem. He says the problem was in the scheduling of trucks to transport his officers. He says that by 7:00 a.m., most of them had already left for duty.
Public transport throughout the city is minimal. Most taxis and boda boda operators have chosen to stay away in anticipation of violence later in the day.
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