Jinja mayor, former LC5 boss clash over roadworks

Jinja. Jinja Mayor Majid Batambuze has asked the former district vice chairperson, Mr Moses Batwala, to stop criticising the ongoing works on municipality roads since “he lives in the village”.
Mr Batwala recently joined demonstrators who took to the streets of Jinja Town, protesting the alteration of the designs for Kutch, Nizam and Scandia roads.
However, the mayor said Mr Batwala does not qualify to comment on issues concerning the roadworks since he does not even stay in Jinja Town.
“Batwala and his ilk are used to the murram roads in their rural Butagaya Sub-county where they stay. I wonder where they get the moral authority to come and antagonise people in the town that they are demonstrating over the alteration of the road,” Mr Batambuze said on Monday.

Justification
The mayor also denied any involvement in the alteration of the road design, saying government got a consultant from Ethiopia who designed it without his input.
He further explained that he has started organising the town by putting signposts on roads, solar lights and doing away with the pungent stench that has been in the town.
“Batwala has no capacity to advise me on what to do in this town. Someone should tell him to leave town matters, which he does not understand,” he added.
However, Mr Batwala urged Mr Batambuze to put things right instead of criticising him.

“Jinja Town is for everyone and no one owns it. Not even Mr Batambuze was born there,” he said. “He (Batambuze) should know that he came from the village to stay in town; so he is like us. But what he should do is to leave things as they were instead of calling us villagers when we tell him the truth,” he added.
Mr Batwala said despite Mr Batambuze’s criticism, his mission has been achieved because the roads in question are being opened and the shoddy work that had started on the road was stopped after his protest.

The contention

Designs. Last week, transport on Main Street in Jinja Town was paralysed after the residents held a protest over the alleged shoddy road works by a contractor. Former district vice chairperson Moses Batwala led the protest. The protestors accused Jinja Town Clerk Francis Byabagambi and UB Consulting Engineers – a firm contracted to construct the new Jinja Main Street Road - of tampering with the initial “beautiful road design” of the road. Residents say with the new design, the road will generate traffic jam and make some streets inaccessible.

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