Entebbe Expressway: Worrying safety and security concerns

I have driven on the Entebbe Expressway and I believe that the road will ease traffic, especially on the old Entebbe-Kampala highway. However, I have some reservations relating to security and safety aspects in relation to the expressway.
My major concern is that there are a few security lights installed (most of them at the junctions). This means that is not sufficiently lit to keep away potential criminals. I propose that as Ugandans, we need to raise our standards if we are to be competitive in the region.

Can Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) give us any reason why the expressway is not fully lit? I am afraid the expressway will be a haven for highway robbers and all sorts of other criminals. My fear is that in case a car break-down on the expressway at night, thugs might come to rob you faster than police and emergency services will come to your rescue, if at all they do.
Uganda is one of the few countries in the world that still builds roads in urban and sub-urban areas without security lighting. Surely, this cannot be part of the national Vision 2040.

In this era of free solar energy, planning to construct any road in and around the city without security lighting is not wise. From what I have observed, Unra seems not to have learnt much from the challenges that bedevilled the construction of the old Northern Bypass. It is important to note that security lights are a must and not an option to be ignored in the name of reducing project costs.
Another issue is that the signage system is inadequate. For instance, although planners installed direction indicators, the route confirmation signs are missing. Sections of the road required an emergency lane or at least a hard shoulder. Unfortunately, this seems seems to have been ignored.

Further more, I am not impressed by what is being done at Katabi, where the road between the mainland and Entebbe peninsular meet. Planners seem to have ignored the need to create a permanent and convenient co-existing relationship between the land and the water mass. They left the fate of the road to nature. In this era of global warming, you cannot rule out the possibility of the lake flooding and submerging the road in the future.
Overall, there are vital ‘Road Safety Auditing’ techniques that were missed at the planning level and that is showing as the road nears completion.
Michael Senyonjo,
[email protected]