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Pause renaming Ugandan roads after celebs for 100 years.

It is now becoming routine that every time an influential person dies, we want to find a city road to rename after them. Honour is different from legacy. If their works were not enough to influence a road named after them while alive, why should we bother after they are dead?

By 2020, KCCA had 7500 roads named, and it has elaborate guidelines on road renaming and naming. The process is efficient, but we must pause any road-renaming request for the next 100years. Former President the Late Idi Amin had some street renamed, but it was also short-lived. There was a recent online petition urging the government to remove the names of British colonial figures from the streets, monuments, and landmarks in Kampala.

You can still honour the dead celebrities using road furniture and help local authorities raise revenue. Renaming roads should not be the only way to honour celebrities, religious and important people who die. What if Local councils dedicate certain pavements on walkways for stars and statues of important people? Councils can even use it as a source of revenue. Those that want the name of their person to be placed on pavers can apply and pay for space.

We pause, renaming any road in Uganda. Who says road renaming should not be inspired by death, dark colonial legacy, and the wealth status of people? Why should a community want to rename a road after a person who has not even spent three years in an area?

Let us preserve our history. What do we exactly benefit from if we rename all colonial roads in Uganda? Are we not choking out of tourism? Think about it. What heritage is in a road name if it can not last a decade? What is that? We should not just erase memories of a place every time we are excited to rename a road after a dead person or modern-day hero. If a road has had a name for 100years, let it stay.

Not every emotional appeal should translate into a road name change. Just because an important person has died, it does not mean he should be part of the history of an area that probably does not know him. If their impact was in their hometown, why do you want to rename a city road?

Let us make the process of renaming roads hard, and possibly add a referendum as a requirement. How do we better our navigation in this country if we are renaming the same road every time? Pause road renaming.

Ivan N Baliboola

PR and Organisational Diagnosis specialist

[email protected]

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Written by Baliboola N Ivan (0)

Public Relations and Organisational diagnosis specialist

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