For some Ugandans, phoning the radio is a way of life

THE TRICKCBS to getting on Ugandan radio is to call early and often, says Rajabu Bukenya (pictured). A phone is tucked in his shirt pocket, its radio receiver tuned to a popular talk show. Eight others are balanced on his thighs, all dialling the station’s number. Soon one connects and he gives his trademark introduction. “This is Rasta Man in Bwaise who eats once a day!” Hunched on a step, beside a wall scrawled with graffiti, he has all of Kampala as his audience.Mr Bukenya says he phones “from morning up to evening”, expounding on crooked politics, bad roads, or the floods that sweep through Bwaise, a poor quarter of the Ugandan capital. He considers himself a “freedom fighter”. But not everyone concurs. Adam Kungu, who hosts a political talk show on Top Radio, says that eight in ten calls come from regulars like Mr Bukenya, stopping ordinary listeners from getting through. “Repetitive callers are a menace,” complains Abby Mukiibi, a programmer at , another station. “To them it is a way of living now, it’s employment.”