Citizens' Manifesto: Voters in Kampala, Wakiso want Jam, potholes sorted

In an opinion poll conducted by Vision Group in March, ahead of next year's general elections, Ugandans shared 20 of their most pressing concerns.



Gaping potholes, poor drainage, floods that damage roads and traffic jam are the major concerns that Ugandans want the Government to address in the roads sector, a survey done by Vision Group has shown.

Whereas several Ugandans say tremendous strides have been made in improving the roads sector, especially construction of highways, many others feel a lot more needs to be done. Many feeder roads in both urban and rural districts are still in a bad state, and the heavy traffic jam and blocked drainages, especially in Kampala metropolitan area, still pose a big challenge to Ugandans who use the roads.

The findings about the road network and transport issues came out in an opinion poll conducted by Vision Group, which aimed at gauging the perceptions of Ugandans towards socio-economic, political and cultural issues in the country.

Vision Group conducts the public opinion poll after an interval of five years and towards the national general elections, targeting potential voters. This poll was conducted between March 13-24 in 45 districts, where 5,987 respondents were interviewed.

Besides the road network, the poll also ranked other issues affecting Ugandans, including education, health, agriculture, national security, child-related issues, energy and power, environment and poverty.

Others included employment, leadership, domestic issues, business and economics, sports, tradition, religion, water and sanitation and the media.

KAMPALA METROPOLITAN AREA

In the central region, especially within Kampala metropolitan area, which includes Kampala city, Wakiso, Mukono and Mpigi districts, it was noted that the main challenges were heavy traffic jam, especially during peak hours (morning and evening), and the poor state of feeder roads.

According to residents interviewed, the murram roads connect most suburbs to the main roads and highways, but they are in a bad state and some become impassable during the rainy season.

Several residents in Nansana municipality, Wakiso district, said during the dry season, roads in the suburbs become dusty, which affects their businesses besides entering their homes. During the rainy season, the roads develop potholes and gulleys, and some become impassable, yet they pay taxes.

Herbert Muwanika, a resident of Lugoba, said the Government promised to tarmac the road that connects Lugoba trading centre to Maganjo along Bombo Road and another connecting Katooke trading centre to Nansana along Hoima Road to ease traffic flow, but nothing has been done to date.

"The works minister, Gen. Katumba Wamala, launched the works for both the LugobaMaganjo and Katooke-Nansana roads, but that is where it all ended," he said.

Deo Kiviri, a resident of Jinja-Kaloli in Wamala parish, said Wakiso district and Nansana municipality leaders told them that the construction of the Lugoba-Maganjo road was going to be a joint effort between the central government and Nansana municipality.

"But after we razed our buildings, they only worked on a small section from Maganjo to Jinja Kaloli Catholic parish church. We were told this was done by Nansana municipality as their section. So, where is the Government?" he asked.

Muzafalu Ssali, a resident of Kyebando in Kawempe division,  said most major roads have been tarmacked in Kampala and the surrounding areas and along highways. But, he said, roads in Kampala city and the surrounding districts, especially Wakiso, cannot accommodate the existing vehicle traffic.

As a result, Ssali said many motorists, especially taxi drivers, resort to using panyas (feeder roads) to dodge the traffic jam, yet most of them are in a bad shape.

AUTHORITIES COMMENT

Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) deputy executive director, Eng. David Luyimbazi, said they have a masterplan to decongest Kampala city. This, Luyimbazi said, would be through improving city road junctions and tarmacking roads that link Kampala to the neighbouring districts.

"We hope to decongest the city within three years as we effect our plan. There are countries that have narrower roads but there is no jam. In Kampala, jam is caused by poor road user behaviour. There are motorists and bodaboda riders who park on the road to shop.

"But we hope after we have signalised over 30 junctions in Kampala and constructed flyovers, the city will be decongested. This will be in addition to tarmacking roads within the Greater Kampala metropolitan area that includes Wakiso, Mukono and Entebbe," he explained.

Under the new plan, Luyimbazi said some streets will be turned into only movement service roads, where parking will not be allowed. This, he added, will be made easy with introduction of buses and banning bodabodas from accessing the central business district.

"We also have plans of imposing a city access tax, where motorists who will be driving into Kampala will have to pay a fee. This is because the pace at which the number of vehicles is increasing is faster than the pace at which we are tarmacking roads and improving junctions," he noted.

The city improvement masterplan, Luyimbazi revealed, is to be implemented through funding from various entities, including a $288m (over sh1.06 trillion) loan from the African Development Bank, a 150m euros (sh652b) funding from the UK Export Finance as well as funding from the World Bank under its next lending cycle.

Wakiso district chairman Matia Lwanga Bwanika said there were many roads in Wakiso which, if tarmacked, would solve the traffic jam problem. Bwanika said whereas several Wakiso residents willingly surrender their land to have the impassable roads rehabilitated, the district is let down by the limited funding from the central government.

Roads like Lugoba-Maganjo and Katooke-Nansana fall under this category, and Bwanika said their designs were ready even before Nansana became a municipality, but they were promised funding which has never come through.

"We invited Gen. Katumba to launch the works because we wanted to show him the importance of the roads so that they can be given priority when it comes to funding. The minister promised us funding, but it is now four years and nothing has been sent. Whatever was done was executed using district funds. Our hands are tied. What can we do?" he said.

Bwanika said their prayer is to give Wakiso a city status, which he hopes would enable them secure more funding from both donors and through locally-generated revenue.

"Development partners fund cities more than districts. When money comes from development partners for districts, it goes to the local government ministry, which distributes it equally among districts. That is why you find a district as small as Kalangala getting one grader just like Wakiso, which is way bigger," he noted.

Bwanika said they prefer tarmacking roads compared to grading; the reason they have used the little available resources to tarmac several roads in the district, citing the 25km Namasuba-NdejjeKitiko-Namulanda road that is currently being tarmacked.

"It takes us between sh300m and sh400m to make a first class murram road of about 10km, and it can last for six months. Yet tarmacking 1km costs sh1.8b and it can last for 25 years. So, tarmacking is better and that is what we are doing, although we are limited by funds," he said.

Bwanika said some roads whose construction UNRA took over, such as Busabala Road up to Lake Victoria and Kira-Kasangati-Matugga road, should be expedited. "But such roads should be worked on up to where they end. For example, the Kira-Kasangati road starts in Seeta through Kira, Kasangati, Matugga, Wakiso up to Buloba (on Hoima Road). But their plan ends at Matugga," Bwanika noted.



UNRA, WORKS RESPOND

The UNRA media relations manager, Allan Sempebwa, said roads were a key factor for economic development as they support all other drivers like health, education and security.

Sempebwa revealed that in the last two years, they came up with framework contracts, where firms are given a contract to maintain a given murram road for three years. "If such a road gets damaged, the contractor will just be informed and they work on it. The essence of this is to avoid delays caused by procurement processes."

He said some of the roads fall under local governments, municipalities and town councils. "Cases like the LugobaMaganjo road, where residents have surrendered their land but the roads have not been done or are partly done, do not fall under our jurisdiction," he said.

To rid Kampala and surrounding areas of traffic jam, Sempebwa said a number of road projects have been awarded to contractors for tarmacking. He cited the Kita-Kasangati-Matugga and Najjanankumbi-Busabala roads, whose construction has been awarded to Chongqing International Construction Corporation (CICO) and China State Engineering Company respectively.

"We also have a mega plan to work on the Kampala flyover project, which will see several roads in the city widened and it will have tunnels. It will be worked on in two phases and we have started on phase one. This is going to be the first of its kind in Kampala, and a game-changer for traffic flow in the city. The second phase will see the flyover link to the Kampala-Jinja highway at Kitgum House," he explained.

Implementation of the expansion of the 21km Kampala Northern Bypass that will handle more traffic, Sempebwa noted, is also going on. He said the Busega-Mpigi road is also under construction, while procurement of a contractor for the KibuyeBusega road is ongoing.

Under the National Development Plan III (NDP III), Sempebwa said UNRA is designing the Kampala outer belt project under which several roads outside Kampala will be tarmacked to decongest Kampala city.

The works minister (Gen. Wamala) could not be reached for a comment but the state minister, Joy Kabatsi, explained that the delay to work on some roads like those in Wakiso, was due to emergencies brought about by heavy rains.

"The heavy rains washed away several roads and bridges. So, we diverted funds to work on these emergencies. We also look at strategic roads first. These are the ones that connect people to markets and boost economic development," she said.