I salute you KCCA but this tiny road stretch…

Jul 19, 2016

The entire time, this road has always had potholes which have slowly turned into gullies punctuated by sharp cliffs on either sides.

By Deo K. Tumusiime

For all the excellent work Kampala City Council Authority under the credible leadership of Iron lady Jennifer Musisi, one tiny road stretch less than 3km is shaming this administration.

I have for the past three or so years used a busy road in Naguru, Kampala connecting from the offices of the former Interparty Coalition, past the Naguru Remand Home to the Chinese Friendship Hospital and on to the Game Stores.

The entire time, this road has always had potholes which have slowly turned into gullies punctuated by sharp cliffs on either side. No more can two cars going in opposite directions fit on the tiny patches of tarmac left of it.

And as would be expected, this very road has experienced a number of accidents already, some I personally witnessed ­- not to mention the world-class jam on the same road every day.

Yet this road is so important as it provides the shortest cut for folks from Bukoto heading to the city, but on a bad day, one can even lose about two hours here.

What I find quite interesting is the fact that the Kampala City Council Authority executive director, Jennifer Musisi, also uses this road sometimes. Not only her, but I have seen many other big government vehicles using the same road, not to mention the rest of us wananchi. Surely how can a road so deadly remain unattended for so long?

Sometimes I feel like carrying some murram in my vehicle to fill up some of the potholes, but again I also know that I would be faulted for venturing into work that is not mine.

One thing I have always failed to understand is why we often seem to pay so much attention and spend so many millions of shillings of upcountry roads, while ignoring smaller roads in the city where there's too much traffic.

Ah, bigger roads are often donor-funded, accrue so much money and, therefore, have better potential for the corrupt! Perhaps yes; perhaps not; But it is so sickening for people to come from deep villages with nice roads, only to reach in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda and find such roads like the one in Naguru. Or is this supposed to be a disincentive for us to live in the city?

Whatever the case, it is my prayer that the KCCA executive director and her team pick interest in this concern and fix that road before it causes more mayhem. I know it is possible at least to put temporary murram as the authority mobilises more funds. Oh, how I wish the wananchi were allowed to do road works on their own! I believe all the rich folks plying that route are surely capable of collecting funds to fix it.

Looking at the bigger picture, I think KCCA should work with the Uganda National Roads Authority and amongst themselves assign a chunk of road networks to particular staff to ensure regular monitoring and maintenance. This way, such a road like that in Naguru would never have taken this long to be fixed-otherwise someone should have been fired for inefficiency.

Come on Jennifer, I know you can sort this small mess, for you've handled much bigger tasks.

Over to you….

 

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