In Gulu, it is called chapati. In Karuma, it is called jigi jigi. Two terms coined to mean sex with a prostitute. In the township of Karuma on the Gulu-Kampala highway, illicit sex is a hot cake. Easy money from thousands of construction workers is fuelling the boom, but beneath the happy-go-lucky surface, one will find heartbreaking stories of betrayal and disillusionment.
On any given day, at a little after pm, the township will be flooded with people wearing bright-coloured helmets, the sound of gumboots and orange reflector jackets as those on the day shift return and others on the night shift rush to catch the bus to the project site. Some are late, so they run with stained white and silver climbers hanging lose on their shoulders making that clicking sound like that of a bell.
It is used to be typical highway hamlet. Today, Karuma is bustling with life and a population that has more than tripled as a result of the MW Karuma Hydro Power dam construction.
According to Karuma LC-I chairperson Severino Opiyo, today there are over 11, residents in Karuma in Mutunda sub-county of Kiryandongo district, something that worries him because of the social cost on his area. Prostitutes are everywhere. Many widows, school drop-outs, spinsters, separated or divorced women and school-age girls have been drawn to this place from as far as Nebbi, Gulu, Oyam, Wakiso, Kampala and Mbarara.
The attraction is money through sex trade with especially workers on the dam project. To meet that deadline, Karuma town is, in effect, staying awake 24 hours a day. The more than 6, workers from all parts of the country and beyond are either coming or going to work, and they pass through the town all the time.
