We keep chasing the bag, but it might be empty. Ugandans are back in the international news again, and this time it is not for good reasons. BBC’s Celine Runako dropped an investigation early this week that feels like one of those WhatsApp forwards we used to laugh off only now, it is painfully real.
According to the undercover report, a man called Charles Mwesigwa, alias Abbeyy, who claims he was once a London bus driver, is allegedly running a side hustle that makes Kifeesi look like saints. He reportedly provides young women for Dubai sex parties. The stories range from women promised supermarket jobs only to end up in entertainment, to the more disturbing clients requesting things that would make even pit-latrines blush.
We have all heard the jokes before, seen the memes, and even trended with the hashtag #DubaiPortaPotty. But this investigation shows that behind the so-called luxury influencer life is trauma, exploitation, and in some cases, death. Two Ugandan women allegedly linked to these circles died after falling from high-rise apartments. Police ruled them suicides. Families are not convinced. While us, we are sitting distressed here shaking our heads and saying banange. Mwesigwa denies it all. He says he is simply a connector helping women find housing and rich friends.
Chasing the bag should not mean being packaged like nyama choma for export without consent. If someone decides to sell meat for dollars, let it be their decision, full menu, price list, and customer service included. Not this nonsense of wrapping traps in fake supermarket job offers. And about these greener pastures in Dubai, maybe it is time we stop pretending the grass is just naturally green, that greener grass is fertilised with things you do not want to step in, let alone touch.
