A man carries a handwashing setup past the entry point of Kihihi Town Council Market in Kanungu district, early in the morning before the market (whose gate is covered with campaign posters) opens and is flocked by the public. This young man refills the setup with water and soap every morning and makes sure it does not run out through the course of the day. Hand washing seems to be the most respected guideline regarding the COVID-19 SOPs in most public spaces within Kihihi Town.
A man carries a campaign poster of Brian Atuheire Batenda to the center of the road in Kihihi town, Kanungu district which is found in the South western part of Uganda as Boda-Boda cyclists observing social-distancing look on. Campaign posters continue to play a big role in enhancing the visibility of candidates to their constituents and remain one of the safest modules to campaign in Uganda especially in the hard to reach areas.
Brian addresses a small crowd at a homestead with his posters on their windows in the background in Kabeho village, Kanungu District. Small community rallies involving as little as two households within a neighborhood are a common occurrence as the candidate strives to avoid large crowds and thus minimize the probable spread of the virus.
Brian shares a light moment with voters during his door to door campaign exercise in his home village, Kabuga in Kanungu District. Faced with guidelines due to the COVID-19 pandemic that limit the number of any form of gathering to 200 people, Brian resorts to door-to-door exercises to avoid holding open rallies at which he could not control the number of people likely to show up.
A lady dressed in a National Resistance Movement (NRM), the ruling political party, T-shirt pauses from pruning a banana tree in her garden to engage Brian by the roadside during his door-to-door exercises as other ladies look on from their own gardens in the background. The NRM party has been in power for the last 35 years with President Museveni as president of Uganda. Many people in the rural areas reserve their mornings for garden work, and the candidate found himself having to reach a number of people in their gardens rather than around the homestead.
Brian speaks to women seated outside a church after addressing a congregation during the installation of a new priest at a church in Kihihi Town Council. The limit on the number of people that could congregate was recently raised from 70 to 200 by the government, still, these women could not be allowed into the church as the limit had already been reached. Despite attempts to wear a mask, as often as possible, the candidate would often take it off as seen in this case, to easily communicate with people or for comfort, which placed him and the people at risk.