MV Kalangala vessel delays irk islanders

MV Pearl ferry in September last year after it had been returned from Kisumu in Kenya where it had been taken for major repairs and servicing. File photo

ENTEBBE. Travellers to and from Kalangala District who use MV Kalangala ferry daily have complained about its sailing schedules, saying the ferry spends longer hours to connect to the islands, which wasn’t the case in the past.
Although the vessel is supposed to leave Kalangala at 8.30am and dock at Nakiwogo in Entebbe at 11am, these days it leaves the islands at 9.30am and takes between 5-6 hours to dock at Nakiwogo, according to the Kalangala District chairperson, Willy Lugoloobi.
“We think there is a problem with the ferry which the managers have not explained to us. Its speed has drastically reduced and sometimes it leaves Entebbe at 4.30pm, instead of 2.30pm and reaches Kalangala at night,” he said in an interview yesterday.

The routes
MV Kalangala plies only two routes from Kalangala. It is supposed to start at 8.30am to sail to Nakiwogo in Entebbe where it docks at 11am. At around 2pm, it leaves Entebbe for Kalangala which it reaches at 5pm.
Mr Lugoloobi wondered how the vessel could be in such a state yet government spends colossal sums of money on its annual servicing and repair .
Mr Godfrey Karugaba, the captain of the vessel, admitted that the vessel currently has some mechanical faults but that it is yet to undergo annual servicing.
MV Kalangala is operated by Nations Oil Distributors who undertook a contract in April 2015. However, servicing and repairing of the vessel remain a responsibility of the Ministry of Works and Transport.