MPs quiz Bagiire over poor roads in Karamoja, Sebei

With the rainy seasons almost setting in, Members of Parliament have asked the works ministry and road agencies to quickly move in and work on the road network in hard to reach areas, especially Karamoja and Sebei sub-regions.

Meeting officials from the works ministry, Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) and the National Road Fund, MPs on Parliament's equal opportunities committee noted that whereas the government has invested a lot in infrastructure, the two sub-regions have not benefited much.

They argued that with the coming rainy seasons, the situation is likely to get worse given the poor road network in the two sub-regions.

"While touring the area, we kept getting stuck on the road. The roads are impassable not even for bodabodas could manage. The bridges are broken down, people cannot transport their goods to the markets, the economic activities are down and it's extremely impossible to access social services," committee chairperson Grace Asamo noted.

Asamo said after the committee tour of the region, it was agreed that the team be summoned to explain the special programme put in place to address the poor infrastructure network in the region.

Asamo tasked the minister to present a concrete budget plan to the committee which can be followed up to provide funds to increase the road network.

"We need that concrete plan so that in every financial year we can easily track the roads that are going to be worked on. You can also spread the plan over the coming financial years so that we do not call you back on the same roads," Asamo said.

"What plans do you have to work on roads and bridges that have been cut off? These bridges support businesses and help people to access hospitals, which has not been the case lately," Christopher Kipterit (Upe County) asked.

Tochi County MP Peter Okot said that the road construction equipment given to districts is not serving its purpose stalling the road works and repairs.

"The tractors and graders are there but most of them are grounded, not because they have mechanical problems, but because there is no fuel and manpower to run them," Okot said.

The transport state minister, Aggrey Bagiire, who represented the senior minister Monica Azuba, told the committee that the biggest challenge that currently exists in the area is the nature of the land.

"The matter has been aggravated by scarcity of good quality murram. In addition, even the foundation soils on the existing roads in the sub-regions are made of highly clay materials that become very slippery during the wet season," he said.

According to the minister, the region currently ferries murram from Bugisu and Karamoja, which has proved to be very expensive and uneconomical to run.

He further explained that whereas the area has abundant sources of rock, it's very expensive to set up crushers in the area.

However, he said in addition to the existing tarmacked roads, a number of roads are planned for tarmacking in the short to medium term. They include Muyembe-Nakapiripirit, Moroto-Kotido-Kabong, Kabong-Karenga, Karenga to South Sudan border, Kitgum-Orom-Kalenga, Moroto-Lokitanyara, Lira-Abim-Kotido and Mbale-Kapchorwa.

He informed the MPs that he had asked districts to send operators who were trained in Luweero, Mbarara, Gulu and Jinja districts, to give them skills to man the road construction equipment.

"We have gone into partnership with development partners to set up a school in Luweero to train people and give them certificates as professional operators," Bagiire said.

He, however, added that some of the already trained personnel were not the ones operating the road equipment, and asked the MPs to weigh in on local governments to utilise the trained human resource.