Top 10 local events reads in 2022 (Pulse Picks)

Through the years, perceptions change and the quality of life changes. However, tragedy and good come no matter the change, and perhaps the community response to them is what has come to define localised events.

Here are 10 reads of 2022 from local communities and ordinary people:

1. Wrecking ball. A 30-year-old man found himself in court when he damaged a frame of President Museveni's portrait picture. Despite being caught at the scene of the crime at Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) he maintained that he was innocent.

2. Last desperate attempt. A 15-year-old girl faked the disappearance of her weeks-old baby in Nansana. She tried to convince her neighbours that the baby had been taken by kidnappers, but her poker face must not have been as convincing. A determined community soon found that the young mother had a tragic and deadly secret.

3. Romeo and Juliet. The police spokesperson for North Kyoga, Patrick Jimmy Okema counselled residents in Beiko Village, Kole District to build more intimate relationships with their spouses and not their spouses' relatives. A husband returned home to his wife sleeping with his cousin, and what was found of the affair was a pool of blood.

4. Traditional lair. As if the emptiness of a whole floor of a Shs12.7 billion market is not haunting enough, a traditional healer set up shop claiming to be a vendor of cultural products. His colleagues were not having it, they threatened to burn his stall down accusing him of having one foot in business and another in the dark arts.

5. Genealogy of Musa. In Butaleja District is a man who is well spoken for. He is so well-spoken for that he has over 600 off-springs to his name. But even the most generous need a helping hand sometimes. This is his story and a piece of Butaleja.

6. No bullying allowed. Traffic policy enforcers delivered a hot slap to a Police boss's face to close the void where his manners should have been. Seeing as he was in the wrong for violating a new policy and throwing the first punch, there is a case of "who did it?" in Lira that might not be solved any time soon.

7. King of Spades. A story of lovers and cheaters. She wanted to be his only girl. He wanted her to get her money's worth. In the end, a young man was accused of stealing a phone that doesn't exist on the market and a young woman's attempt to get love was revealed to be a long con.

8. Cheap suit. The court of public opinion called out a city pastor for sending 'pocket change' to cater for the burial of his abandoned baby mama. He allegedly had arrears from unfulfilled child support pledges and is ironically wanted over allegedly obtaining money pretending to give out scholarships.

9. Firewoman. A grieving mother in Makindye was put on Police radar for suspected arson when her two children burned to death inside her house. The mother left the two children locked inside the house to go get water.

10. Till death do us part. On a fateful day, a man in Rurale, Bududa District, entered an agro-shop to get some insecticide. He was fresh off a reconciliation meeting where his family reunited him with his long-lost wife, which is why many were left wondering why he took the insecticide instead.