You can give a road your name

May 15, 2009

Bobi Wine, Ragga Dee, Gordon Wavamunno and Straka. What do they have in common? True, they have all walked through WBS television corridors but that is not all. With the current road naming bonanza in Kampala, all four have had roads named after them.

By Alex Balimwikungu

Bobi Wine, Ragga Dee, Gordon Wavamunno and Straka. What do they have in common? True, they have all walked through WBS television corridors but that is not all. With the current road naming bonanza in Kampala, all four have had roads named after them.

Wavah Close is known to many who ply the Munyonyo Cape route. Bobi Wine Road is 8km off Gayaza road. Straka close is in Makindye Division, while the Ragga Dee Close in the same division is no more. He ruefully discovered the land he had bought was ‘air’ and suffered the ignominy of walking off with his road sign long before construction of his palatial home could take off.

That is how Kampala, which hardly had any street names a few years ago, is awash with road names, most of them not indicated on the city map.

In the UK, streets are named after distinguished people, sometimes people directly associated with the street. Even then many jurisdictions only allow naming after their death, occasionally with a waiting period of ten years.

In Uganda, it is different. Do people just wake up and have streets named after them in a desperate bid for immortality? Do you need to be a tycoon or know the mayor’s hotline to get a road named after you? Who maintains the road after rights are granted?

As it turns out you don’t have to be a tycoon or know the mayor to get a road named after you. All you need is to own some land where a short access road is needed to serve a couple of houses in your unplanned suburbs and allow them access on condition that your name is painted brightly on a sign. Ditto and a new road is named after you.

Herbert Semakula, Kampala City Council’s assistant public relations officer, refutes claims that anyone can have a road named after them. KCC vetoes all applications.

He explains that people express the desire to name a street or road, by applying to the council. “To be approved by the council, the application must be accompanied by the person’s profile. It should also not come from an individual but many people, especially elders residing in that area.”

He notes that not any name can qualify. “Imagine if a road is named after a common thief or notorious criminal? The person ought to have done good to the people. He can be a religious leader, an astute businessman, a political leader, an elder in a community or any other good person.”

He says that after receiving the application, the works committee discusses the proposal. The committee consists of LC5 councillors, engineers and council members.

Semakula explains that after approval, they then authorise the technical team to make sign posts naming a street. He says it is possible to name a private village road. But even then, one has to notify the council for the purpose of mapping, design, planning and management. “For the private roads, you first have to agree with neighbours and then the local council. These forward the necessary documentation to us and we usually charge a simple fee of making standard road signs.

We are expected to maintain such roads but owing to meagre funds, we request the ‘road owners’ to maintain them.” he says.

He however says they intend to crack down on illegally named roads, which are on KCC’s map. The Government gives sh15b to KCC for road maintenance and repairs annually. This includes maintaining roads and opening up new ones. Even from its internal revenue, it spends sh3bn on roads.

According to experts, tarmacking and maintaining a kilometre of a road costs up to sh300m. If KCC insisted on such basic rules for road naming, the Apollos, Mama Sulas, Taata Stanleys or Kojja Dalawusis wouldn’t crave for road naming. But a road can change names as many times as local opinion changes.

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