If you want to understand 100 years of Uganda, follow the story of her roads

July marked the start of the 10th anniversary celebrations of the establishment of the Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra), but if you are a historian, you would argue that it was also the 150th commemoration of a dream of a Uganda connected by a modern network of roads. Or it could be 100 years of infrastructure in contemporary Uganda. Or 30 years of what you could call “the infrastructure renaissance”, that begun in earnest in 1988.

But let us start with Alexander Mackay, known to most as a mid-19th Century Scottish Presbyterian missionary to Tanzania and Uganda. The explorer David Livingstone, a fellow Scot, was Mackay’s hero. History says that on December 12, 1875, Mackay picked up a copy of the Edinburgh Daily Review, and in it was a letter that excited him a lot. It was by another explorer, Henry Morton Stanley, friend of Livingstone. Stanley had written the letter at the request of Buganda’s King Muteesa I. In part it read:

“King Muteesa I of Uganda has been asking me about the White man’s God …Oh that some practical missionary would come here! Muteesa I would welcome such. It is the practical Christian who can cure their diseases, build dwellings and turn his hand to anything- this is the man who is wanted…”

Mackay, a practical man (Ugandans nicknamed him Muzungu wa Kazi), who was passionate about mechanics, and for long had desired to follow in the footsteps of Livingstone and Stanley, thought that he was the man for the job. Within four months, Mackay, along with seven other young missionary volunteers, was on a ship bound for Zanzibar and Uganda.

The records say Mackay undertook to build a wagon road from the coast to Mpwapwa (now a market town in the Dodoma region of Tanzania), 402 kilometres inland. He faced a lot of difficulties, but in the end succeeded, though the road didn’t reach Uganda. But he wrote in a letter to his father as the road was nearing completion.

“This will certainly yet be a highway for the King Himself; and all that pass this way will come to know His Name.” It is debated whether by the King Himself, he meant God, or Muteesa I.

But the idea of a connection to the East African hinterland by something more than a footpath, had been born. Some have argued that in Mackay’s letter, or better still Muteesa I, was the seed that eventually gave birth to the most defining infrastructure project in 20th Century Uganda – the Kenya-Uganda Railway. The railway reached Tororo in 1929, Kampala in 1931, and Kasese in 1956. Its northern route continued through Tororo, Mbale, Soroti, Pakwach, Lira and ended in Gulu Town. The railway was important in defining modern Uganda. But also was the establishment of Unra, although for more modest reasons.

Until 2008, for more than 100 years, the building of roads and bridges in Uganda (and most other African countries that now also have their road authorities), was a central political activity, and part of the legitimacy of the colonial and post-independence governments was based on their direct control of building roads and delivering on the promise. It was the responsibility of Public Works Departments, and later ministry of Works.

The setting up of Unra as an executive infrastructure management agency was, therefore, first and foremost, a political act. We were given power that previously was wielded by politicians, exercising it on behalf of their electorate, a big change in the delegation of authority and in our democracy. Therefore, we take the 10th anniversary to appreciate that heavy responsibility, humble ourselves before and account to the people on whose behalf we do what we do. That is because the work we do is part of a history of one of the forces that has impacted Ugandan nationhood most.

To appreciate that, we need to return to when the Kenya-Uganda Railway began in Mombasa in 1896. While people like Mackay were missionaries, and saw “wagon roads” to Uganda as part of the Lord’s work, the first primary reason for the railway was to give the British a foothold at the source of the Nile, to control the headwaters of the river, in order to exert influence over Egypt and the Suez Canal – and control the key eastern trade route. Later, to transport raw materials for British industries to the coast.

One result of the railways is that economic development in Uganda (and Kenya) became concentrated along the “railway corridor” (generally the areas about 120kms from the railway). Its our roads that took “development” from the railway corridor to the rest of the country, and incorporated periphery areas into the national project. One would argue that roads are among the leading factors that made Uganda a country. This continues today.

While roads and other infrastructure help create economic opportunities, let us begin to look at these other social and political benefits in measuring their value. That helps us price the investment more accurately, but is also another reason why we should exercise ownership and treat the roads better (not to vandalise the guard rails or steal the beacons).

At a broader regional level, roads are one of the things that make Uganda East African, and define our strategic significance to the hinterland economies of central Africa and further north to the Sudans. We just launched the construction of the Kapchorwa-Suam road. This road is approximately 73km-long and snakes through north of Mt Elgon National Park through the districts of Kapchorwa, Kween and Bukwo, and ends in Suam at the border with Kenya.

It will foster transport linkage with Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and DRC. It is, therefore, at a strategic level, another cog in the East African integration project. We cannot, therefore, over emphasise, how much our roads offer us great potential to leverage our location and to develop policy to secure our prosperity.

Recently, President Yoweri Museveni noted that Uganda, which for all intents and purposes is East Africa’s bread basket, produces just more than five million bags of maize a year, but we consume just more than one million and export the other four million to East Africa. Without infrastructure, most of these four million bags wouldn’t get out – and anything up to 75 million East Africans - would have less to eat.

This anniversary is an opportunity to build a new social contract with Uganda – and East Africa. And to take a bow to all Ugandans who have invested so much in the infrastructure to make a life for themselves and our neighbours. We shall also return to explore the journey ahead.

Ms Kagina is the executive director of the Uganda National Roads Authority. Twitter: @UNRA_ED