Stop blaming the rain: Timekeeping is a choice

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OPINION

By Jackson Odong

We Ugandans have mastered the art of blaming the sky. When the rain falls, we stay in bed. When the traffic snarls, we throw up our hands. When we arrive late, we deliver our excuses like clockwork: “You know Kampala…”

Ugandans must stop using traffic and weather as excuses for poor time management. These aren’t barriers — they’re predictable realities. The real issue is how we choose to respond to them.

A recent experience at the Uganda Human Rights Commission taught me a hard lesson in humility and responsibility. I had a meeting scheduled for 11:00 am with Commissioner Crispin Kaheru. I woke up at 7:30 am, thinking I had all the time in the world. Rain was pounding Kampala like a tropical jungle flood, so I stayed in bed a little longer. After all, the storm gave me a perfect excuse — or so I thought.

At 10:00 am, I finally jumped on a boda boda. My rider cursed drivers, cursed the sky, cursed the traffic lights as we crawled through gridlock. I arrived at 12:09 pm — over an hour late. The look from one Director Pauline Nansamba, when I finally arrived said it all. Her calm but firm words stung. I guess because she had driven through the same storm and made it on time. No excuses. Just planning.

That was the moment I realised: traffic and rain don’t make you late. Poor planning does. Kampala’s roads carry about three million people daily. Traffic is a daily reality, not a surprise. Rainy seasons follow a regular pattern, not a mystery. So why are we always caught off guard?

It’s simple. We don’t plan ahead. If I had left at 8:30 am, I would have made it in time — even with the rain and traffic. Instead, I gambled with the clock and lost. And I wasn’t just late; I missed my chance to make a strong first impression.

We often treat traffic and weather like wildcards. But they’re not. Rain doesn’t burn like fire. It doesn’t paralyse us. Umbrellas, raincoats, and plastic bags are everywhere in Kampala. People walk through storms to get to school and work every day. So what was my excuse?

My boss drove a car, which is more vulnerable to traffic than a boda. Still, he planned better. He anticipated the chaos. That’s the difference. Success in our environment doesn’t come from having better tools — it comes from making better choices.

Timekeeping isn’t about luck. It’s about intention. You can choose to walk part of the way, use SafeBoda, check Google Maps, or take a backstreet. You can leave earlier. You can think ahead. But if you don’t, you can’t blame the rain.

Punctuality shows respect. It builds trust with colleagues, clients, and institutions. When you’re late, people notice. And they remember. My delay that day wasn’t just a personal failure — it was a missed opportunity to show commitment.

Uganda is on a journey toward greater efficiency. That starts with personal discipline. If we keep normalising excuses, we’ll keep normalising delays. And delays cost more than time — they cost credibility. Imagine what this costs us — not just in productivity, but in partnerships, in missed opportunities, in trust. Imagine the investor who arrives on time to a meeting that starts 40 minutes late. Imagine the doctor who delays an operation because no one kept the theatre on schedule. Imagine the child who misses school because her teacher arrived “whenever.”

Weather doesn’t control your calendar. Traffic doesn’t own your clock. You do. You can plan for rain. You can factor in traffic. You can create backup plans. What you can’t do is pretend you had no choice.

That day changed everything for me. I stopped seeing Kampala’s traffic and rain as obstacles. I started seeing them as part of the terrain I need to master.

Time management is not about fighting the environment. It’s about adapting to it. Uganda won’t move forward if we keep blaming the sky for our shortcomings. The rain will fall. The traffic will crawl. But we can still be on time — if we choose to be.

The writer is a student of Journalism and Communication Makerere University