Moyo residents demonstrate over impassable roads

Residents of Moyo on Monday staged a demonstration over the government failure to work on their road.
The most roads become impassable especially during rainy seasons.
On Monday passengers traveling to Kampala were seen stranded as their cars could not manoeuvre through the muddy Moyo-Adjumani road.
The Moyo-Adjumani road has for decades been impassable especially during the rainy seasons. In addition to mud, the roads, which are purely under Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) , are narrow, with deep gullies.

The locals in the area have been advocating for better roads but the promises to work on the ones in existence have had little effect.
Mr Osman Buga, a resident of Achimari village in Obongi County said the situation has and government needs to work on the roads so as to avert the increasing transport costs.
"I spend over Shs 40,000 just to access Moyo district headquarters,” he said.

He said some people fear to risk their lives crossing the usually flooded road connecting Gimara to Itula Sub-counties.
Mr Sam Asusi, the secretary for works in Moyo District described the roads as “a total mess.” “UNRA officials are painting a bad image of the government and the people have the right to demand better services and here there is no need to play around,” Mr Asusi said.

Mr Hassan Kaps Fungaroo , the Obongi County MP said the impassable road is at Toloro village a few kilometres away from Moyo Town.
“People here pay tax because the roads under UNRA are worse than the district roads yet they are expected to be better given the fact that UNRA has more resources in terms of equipment, human resources and funds,” he said.
When President Museveni visited the region last month, he said government is securing funds for tarmacking the road from Koboko via Yumbe-Moyo to Adjumani District.

Mr Williams Anyama, the LC5 Chairman Moyo District said the poor road networks in the district has degenerated service delivery to the public and needs to be addressed before the situation worsens.
When contacted, Unra media relations manager, Allan Kyobe Ssempebwa Mr Allan Ssempebwa Kyobe said: “The current rains have caused havoc on some roads on our network especially those that are under gravel. But we want to assure all those on our road network that we have put in place a flood response unit to ensure that there’s a rapid response of our team whenever we get incidents like road wash out or culverts.”

He said part of the work of the flood response teams is to assess the level of damage.
“In other areas, we have had to go there with our machines and work on the damaged roads. We also have a plan for all the gravel roads on our network, especially those disturbed by the current rains,” he added.

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