Namugongo, Uganda | VERY-FACT | This year’s Martyr’s day celebration has had a special pomp with exceedingly more people from all walks of life flocking the Catholic shrines.
By 6:00 a.m, all spaces inside the shrines were full, yet more pilgrims continued to arrive, forming long queues at every entrance point.
“This might be the largest crowd to ever attend this event. Indeed, each year, this place attracts more people, except during the COVID-19 lull,” one of the organizers noted.
Before the event, the shrines had been expanded with more spaces created in the wooded areas behind the central pavilion. However, every available space, whether green or concrete, was already occupied by morning.
Despite having special clearance to bypass the queues, our reporter took an hour to access the entrance and other 30 minutes to pass into the crowd to access the pavilion.
The Namugongo event is reputed to be the largest one-day gathering in Uganda, with organizers claiming attendance figures of up to 4 million people in recent years. While it is undeniable that the event attracts massive crowds, several experts have disputed these figures.
Meanwhile, although many were pushing to enter, several were equally trying to leave. One of those exiting was Alex Musaazi, a pilgrim from Lukaya. Musaazi noted that he had spent the night at the shrine, completed his prayers, and was now heading home.
“The internet is off. We cannot broadcast,” was the desperate cry from several media teams as they scrambled to find solutions. Some thought interchanging internet provider might save the day, but all efforts were in vain.
“We should send someone to buy a UTL line; it might be on,” suggested a journalist from the Holy Cross Catholic team. However, a neighbor from Radio Maria informed her that he was using UTL, and it was also down. Some media outlets, like NTV, had to leave their established stations to find areas where they could conduct live broadcasts using mobile units.
“It has been hard for us to broadcast today. Since morning, the network has been jammed, and we seem to have come to participate like other pilgrims,” noted Solomon Kaweesa, a journalist at NTV. The situation was so dire that even phone calls could not be made.
Later, it was discovered that the network had been jammed by the presidential security team on the ground. Media groups pleaded with the central organizing committee to request that the Special Forces Command (SFC) team allow them to work.
At this moment, officers from the presidential press unit moved towards the press area to assess how the media had been affected. Alex Atuhairwe, a member of the organizing committee coordinating the press, later informed the media that they had spoken to the president’s security team to have the jammers turned off so the media could broadcast.
“We have engaged them, and they are handling it,” Atuhairwe told the journalists, who were feeling increasingly frustrated by the situation.