Guards extorting money from road users
Apr 25, 2008
THE delay in the completion of the Kampala Northern Bypass has opened it up to corruption. The people guarding the bypass extort money from motorists and cyclists who want to use the road. There are barriers at every entrance, where motorists are asked to pay some money to be let through.
By Hilary Bainemigisha
and Chris Kiwawulo
THE delay in the completion of the Kampala Northern Bypass has opened it up to corruption. The people guarding the bypass extort money from motorists and cyclists who want to use the road. There are barriers at every entrance, where motorists are asked to pay some money to be let through.
Bicycles are charged sh100, bodabodas, sh200 and cars, sh500. Whoever enters has to pay again at the exit.
However, the spokesperson for the contractors M/s Salini, Chris Kamukama, said he was not aware of the practice.
On February 13, a security guard was killed by a mob when he shot and injured a bodaboda cyclist who had reportedly attempted to use the bypass without paying the bribe.
Both Salini and the Road Agency Formation Unit (RAFU), the body charged with monitoring the construction of the bypass, confirmed reports of the guard’s death.
The Northern Bypass is intended to relieve traffic congestion in the city and also to serve as part of a wider programme to reduce transportation constraints on the northern corridor.
The 21km road follows the edge of Lubigi Swamp from approximately 200 metres after Busega Road roundabout, on Fort Portal Road, till Ntebettebe on Jinja Road between Kireka and Bweyogerere, just opposite Nelson Mandela National Stadium, Nambole.
The RAFU spokesperson, Dan Alinange, said the road was not yet open to the public but he anticipates that it will be open in the middle of this year.
The Saturday Vision crew approached the Fort Portal Road entrance at around 10:30am on Sunday last week. There is a warning signpost in capital letters: “Danger! Construction site: keep out. Trespassers will be prosecuted.â€
Guards in uniform and workers were posted at all roadblocks to keep out traffic.
There were two young adults and an armed guard from Tight Security.
When asked them to let us pass, the young men retorted: “Mzee, wasoma? Laba ekipande wenyage!†(Old man, you are educated? Read the signpost and ‘rob yourself’).
Later, bodaboda riders explained how it works. “That bypass has become olusuku (a ‘banana plantation’ – where people harvest from,†said one. “Those people at the roadblocks want money. And it is not a lot. But if the police catch you, you pay a sh300,000 fine for a car!â€
Sometimes, the bodaboda cyclists added, Police officers on highway patrol lay abrupt swoops (ekiddo) and arrest cyclists and motorists who illegally use the road. They confiscate the bodabodas and to get it back, one pays sh100,000.
But Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba said the matter had not come to her attention. “I don’t think it is true. I am not defending them but some people may want to tarnish the Police image.â€
With two hired bodabodas, Saturday Vision returned to the bypass and, on paying sh400, guards removed the barricade. Every time a roadblock was passed, sh400 was given away.
The journey, taken at leisure, took about an hour up to the Kireka-Bweyogerere junction.
Traffic on the bypass was dominated by bicycles, boda bodas and pedestrians, with an occasional vehicle. By the end, Saturday Vision had counted nine civilian vehicles, which must have coughed a total of sh4,500 at one roadblock.
Thirteen bodabodas, at sh200 each, must have totalled sh2,600. There were countless bicycles but if the estimate is put at just 30, it makes it a total of sh3,000 per roadblock.
This means that the total collected per road block comes to around sh10,000 per hour. There were nine roadblocks and all before the Kisaasi-Ntinda round about.
Yet, the bodaboda rider said, that was low because it was a Sunday morning. “There are many more people on working days,†he said. “Those boys (sentries at road blocks) are going to get very rich.â€
Kamukama says it is unfortunate, if the guards are collecting money from the motorists. “But the bottom line is that motorists are not supposed to be using the road at all now. We are going to take measures to address that problem,†he added.
Kamukama said although they guard the bypass against untimely use, motorists were aggressively demanding that the road be opened. “There is a very big population between Kyebando (11km) and Kawaala (6km). We have been battling them at these places for a long time.â€
Facts about the bypass
The Kampala Northern Bypass project is funded jointly by the European Union (EU) and the Government of Uganda at an original cost of sh83.9 b (37.3 million Euros), which was later raised to sh118b.
The project comprises 21km of road, of which 17.5km is a single carriageway road and 3.5km a dual carriage way road between Hoima Road and Gayaza Road.
In the future, the entire road will be of dual carriage and this is already provided for by the existing bridge-sets.
The main contractor, Salini Construttori, sub-contracted Spencon Services Limited and Stirling Civil Engineering Limited. The Supervising Engineer is BCEOM of Guyancourt, France, while the Supervisor, on behalf of the Government of Uganda, is the Road Agency Formation Unit (RAFU), under the Ministry of Works and Transport.
The bypass commences at Fort Portal Road, 200m from Busega-Masaka Road roundabout and heads north east, following the edge of the Lubigi Swamp. It skirts north of Lubya hill and crosses Hoima Road at Nnamungoona. The road then goes through Kawaala hill behind Makerere Hill, before reaching Bombo Road at its junction with Sir Apollo Kaggwa Road.
It runs through Bwaise and below Kyebando hill before crossing the swamp again to Bukoto, Kigoowa and Nsimbi Ziwoome, to the south of Kkulambiro hill. From Kkulambiro, the route crosses over to Kiwatule, Kamidi before crossing Jinja Road at Ntebettebe, opposite Nelson Mandela National Stadium, Namboole.
The project has constructed nine new bridges and one pedestrian foot bridge at Kawaala Road, Bombo Road (two bridges carrying the bypass over the roundabout), Gayaza Road, Kyebando-Mulago Road, at Kisaasi to Bukoto Road, at Old Kiira Road, Namugongo Road and at Jinja Road at the Stadium.
Others structures that were reinforced were a concrete vehicular underpass on Old Kiwatule Road, a grade-separated interchange on Jinja Road and Nelson Mandela Stadium, a number of side roads and about 100 underground ducts across the road to cater for service relocation of power, telephone and water in the future.
Seven roundabouts have also been constructed on Mityana Road, Sentema Road, Hoima Road, on the connection of Bombo and Sir Apollo Kaggwa roads, on Bukoto-Kyebando road, on Kisaasi-Ntinda road and a connection to Naalya.
Edited from a publication of the Uganda Road Fund
and Chris Kiwawulo
THE delay in the completion of the Kampala Northern Bypass has opened it up to corruption. The people guarding the bypass extort money from motorists and cyclists who want to use the road. There are barriers at every entrance, where motorists are asked to pay some money to be let through.
Bicycles are charged sh100, bodabodas, sh200 and cars, sh500. Whoever enters has to pay again at the exit.
However, the spokesperson for the contractors M/s Salini, Chris Kamukama, said he was not aware of the practice.
On February 13, a security guard was killed by a mob when he shot and injured a bodaboda cyclist who had reportedly attempted to use the bypass without paying the bribe.
Both Salini and the Road Agency Formation Unit (RAFU), the body charged with monitoring the construction of the bypass, confirmed reports of the guard’s death.
The Northern Bypass is intended to relieve traffic congestion in the city and also to serve as part of a wider programme to reduce transportation constraints on the northern corridor.
The 21km road follows the edge of Lubigi Swamp from approximately 200 metres after Busega Road roundabout, on Fort Portal Road, till Ntebettebe on Jinja Road between Kireka and Bweyogerere, just opposite Nelson Mandela National Stadium, Nambole.
The RAFU spokesperson, Dan Alinange, said the road was not yet open to the public but he anticipates that it will be open in the middle of this year.
The Saturday Vision crew approached the Fort Portal Road entrance at around 10:30am on Sunday last week. There is a warning signpost in capital letters: “Danger! Construction site: keep out. Trespassers will be prosecuted.â€
Guards in uniform and workers were posted at all roadblocks to keep out traffic.
There were two young adults and an armed guard from Tight Security.
When asked them to let us pass, the young men retorted: “Mzee, wasoma? Laba ekipande wenyage!†(Old man, you are educated? Read the signpost and ‘rob yourself’).
Later, bodaboda riders explained how it works. “That bypass has become olusuku (a ‘banana plantation’ – where people harvest from,†said one. “Those people at the roadblocks want money. And it is not a lot. But if the police catch you, you pay a sh300,000 fine for a car!â€
Sometimes, the bodaboda cyclists added, Police officers on highway patrol lay abrupt swoops (ekiddo) and arrest cyclists and motorists who illegally use the road. They confiscate the bodabodas and to get it back, one pays sh100,000.
But Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba said the matter had not come to her attention. “I don’t think it is true. I am not defending them but some people may want to tarnish the Police image.â€
With two hired bodabodas, Saturday Vision returned to the bypass and, on paying sh400, guards removed the barricade. Every time a roadblock was passed, sh400 was given away.
The journey, taken at leisure, took about an hour up to the Kireka-Bweyogerere junction.
Traffic on the bypass was dominated by bicycles, boda bodas and pedestrians, with an occasional vehicle. By the end, Saturday Vision had counted nine civilian vehicles, which must have coughed a total of sh4,500 at one roadblock.
Thirteen bodabodas, at sh200 each, must have totalled sh2,600. There were countless bicycles but if the estimate is put at just 30, it makes it a total of sh3,000 per roadblock.
This means that the total collected per road block comes to around sh10,000 per hour. There were nine roadblocks and all before the Kisaasi-Ntinda round about.
Yet, the bodaboda rider said, that was low because it was a Sunday morning. “There are many more people on working days,†he said. “Those boys (sentries at road blocks) are going to get very rich.â€
Kamukama says it is unfortunate, if the guards are collecting money from the motorists. “But the bottom line is that motorists are not supposed to be using the road at all now. We are going to take measures to address that problem,†he added.
Kamukama said although they guard the bypass against untimely use, motorists were aggressively demanding that the road be opened. “There is a very big population between Kyebando (11km) and Kawaala (6km). We have been battling them at these places for a long time.â€
Facts about the bypass
The Kampala Northern Bypass project is funded jointly by the European Union (EU) and the Government of Uganda at an original cost of sh83.9 b (37.3 million Euros), which was later raised to sh118b.
The project comprises 21km of road, of which 17.5km is a single carriageway road and 3.5km a dual carriage way road between Hoima Road and Gayaza Road.
In the future, the entire road will be of dual carriage and this is already provided for by the existing bridge-sets.
The main contractor, Salini Construttori, sub-contracted Spencon Services Limited and Stirling Civil Engineering Limited. The Supervising Engineer is BCEOM of Guyancourt, France, while the Supervisor, on behalf of the Government of Uganda, is the Road Agency Formation Unit (RAFU), under the Ministry of Works and Transport.
The bypass commences at Fort Portal Road, 200m from Busega-Masaka Road roundabout and heads north east, following the edge of the Lubigi Swamp. It skirts north of Lubya hill and crosses Hoima Road at Nnamungoona. The road then goes through Kawaala hill behind Makerere Hill, before reaching Bombo Road at its junction with Sir Apollo Kaggwa Road.
It runs through Bwaise and below Kyebando hill before crossing the swamp again to Bukoto, Kigoowa and Nsimbi Ziwoome, to the south of Kkulambiro hill. From Kkulambiro, the route crosses over to Kiwatule, Kamidi before crossing Jinja Road at Ntebettebe, opposite Nelson Mandela National Stadium, Namboole.
The project has constructed nine new bridges and one pedestrian foot bridge at Kawaala Road, Bombo Road (two bridges carrying the bypass over the roundabout), Gayaza Road, Kyebando-Mulago Road, at Kisaasi to Bukoto Road, at Old Kiira Road, Namugongo Road and at Jinja Road at the Stadium.
Others structures that were reinforced were a concrete vehicular underpass on Old Kiwatule Road, a grade-separated interchange on Jinja Road and Nelson Mandela Stadium, a number of side roads and about 100 underground ducts across the road to cater for service relocation of power, telephone and water in the future.
Seven roundabouts have also been constructed on Mityana Road, Sentema Road, Hoima Road, on the connection of Bombo and Sir Apollo Kaggwa roads, on Bukoto-Kyebando road, on Kisaasi-Ntinda road and a connection to Naalya.
Edited from a publication of the Uganda Road Fund