Kampala carnival: Major city roads to be closed on Saturday
What you need to know:
- The Kampala City Carnival started in 2012 as a platform to rally city dwellers together and celebrate the city.
- KCCA says the festival is aimed at preserving history and tradition and strives to stimulate the local economy, entertain and involve the community and visitors in a fun–filled atmosphere.
KAMPALA. Motorists planning to access the city centre have up to Saturday evening to do their businesses as all major city roads will be closed a head of Sunday’s closing celebrations of the city carnival.
According to the statement that was jointly issued by Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) on Thursday, the roads will be closed on Saturday evening and be re-opened on Sunday night after the celebrations.
The affected roads include; Buganda Road, Bombo Road, Kampala Road, Luwum street, Wilson Road, William street, Dustur street and part of Entebbe Road (interception of Nasser and Nkrumah Roads.
Others include; Part of Jinja Road at Kitgum House, Colville Kimathi Avenue, King George VI, Speke Road and, Dewinton Rise, Sir Apollo Kaggwa and Siad Barre.
However, some roads outside the Central Business District (CBD) will remain open. The three-day event started yesterday. The theme of this year’s carnival is “Celebrating cultural diversity”.
Mr Samuel Serunkuuma, the KCCA Acting deputy executive director told council this week that atleast Shs1.3b will be spent on this year’s city carnival.
“We intend to spend Shs1.3b on the whole event, but all this money comes from private partners. As KCCA, our duty is to organize the event, and the money that will be collected from this carnival will be used to refurbish the city’s dilapidated schools,” he said.
According to statistics from KCCA, there are 79 primary schools in the city. However, majority of these schools have fallen victim of land grabbing, something that continues to worry city residents especially the urban poor whose income is meagre.
By Friday, there was already a bee hive of activities in the city as the business community had started setting up stalls to sell their merchandise.
Tanzanian artiste, Naseeb Abdul Juma a.k.a Diamond Platnumz, who arrived in the country on Friday morning, will be the headlining artiste at the carnival charity concert during the closure of the event at Kololo Independence grounds on Sunday.
The Kampala City Carnival started in 2012 as a platform to rally city dwellers together and celebrate the city. KCCA says the festival is aimed at preserving history and tradition and strives to stimulate the local economy, entertain and involve the community and visitors in a fun–filled atmosphere.
