Scouts offer land to govt for Search and Rescue Centre

WAKISO - The Uganda Scouts’ Association has offered land to the Government for construction of one of the nine Search and Rescue coordination centres to improve safety on Uganda’s water bodies.

The state-of-the-art water navigation centres are being constructed by the works and transport ministry at a cost of $15.85m (sh55.2b). Of this, $13.7m is a loan from the African Development Bank, while $2.1m is a contribution from the Government of Uganda.

The scouts handed over the land measuring 150X100 metres at Kaazi in Wakiso district, on which government put up the rescue coordination centre in an effort to ensure safe travel on Lake Victoria.

Launching the Kaazi facility on Thursday, Waiswa Bageya, the works and transport ministry permanent secretary, said the centre is among nine others on different lakes countrywide.

At its initial stage, the project was only covering Lake Victoria, but it was extended to Lake Kyoga and Lake Albert, which also have a number of water vessels, Bageya revealed. The nine centres are aimed at responding to distress calls by water transport users so as to save lives.

Bageya appealed to government to prioritise timely allocation of funds for rehabilitation and maintenance of transport infrastructure to minimise losses.

“Some of the transport projects where the government allocates substantial funds are left to waste while others are not given attention for rehabilitation and maintenance,” he said.

He said the Kaazi Search and Rescue Centre has rescue, firefighting and ambulance boats, which are part of a broader multinational Lake Victoria Maritime Communications and Transport Project.

Bageya said the project was covering three countries: Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, but Kenya pulled out.

The Scouts’ Association was represented by Prof. Badru Kateregga, the Chief Scout of Uganda; Dr. Magie Kigozi, the association Board of Trustees chairperson; and Alice Nyiramahoro, the Chief Commissioner for Scouts.

“As Scouts, we are privileged to have partnered with the ministry to works and transport towards this noble cause geared towards saving lives of people on water,” said Kigozi.
Robert Ntambi, the commissioner for Maritime Administration under the ministry of works and transport said the project coordinates maritime safety through the deployed rescue boats.

“Though the rescue facilities have been availed on navigable waters, transporters on water bodies should embrace the use of lifejackets, and this should be more with vessel owners to ensure safety of lives,” said Ntambi.

Suleiman Kirungi, the commissioner of police heading the Marine police department under the directorate of operations, said water transport is currently characterised by cases of boat engine thefts, where victims need to call the rescue teams in case of any problem.

He said the country registered a reduction in the number of people dying due to drowning from 243 deaths in 2023 to 178 in 2024 “because of serious maritime sensitisation and use of safety gears (life jackets).”

However, Kirungi noted a slight increase in robberies of boat engines from 37 engines in 2023 to 45 engines last year.

“Enforcement of maritime safety, security, patrol and surveillance got 775 suspects. Of these, 506 suspects were cautioned, 269 taken into custody, and among them 75 were convicted in courts of law for not using safety gears (lifejackets), overloading of vessels, illegal fishing and theft,” said Kirungi.