Entebbe Airport cracked and overgrown? Whatever happened to that Chogm cash!

The New Vision recently reported that President Museveni had “put Civil Aviation Authority management to task to explain the sorry state of Entebbe International Airport”.
On his return from a working trip to the United States, readers were told, the President was “shocked” to see cracks and overgrown vegetation on the runway.
Apparently, the President was so shocked by the sight, he conducted an impromptu short tour of the facility and was left wondering, “whether Entebbe was an airstrip or an international airport”, the paper said.

One can imagine our President, our Head of State, climbing back into his limousine, plucking weeds from his suit trouser, having only navigated, but only just, through the jungle at the airport, telephoning the in-charge and demanding answers.
Here are some unsolicited insights from this column for the kind attention of the Head of State.
First, while Entebbe is an airstrip compared to JKF, Dubai, or even Oliver Tambo and Jomo Kenyatta just next door, I have seen worse across the continent, from Bujumbura to Ouagadougou.

Secondly, authorities in charge of the airport recently launched a ‘master plan’ to improve the place, so it is not that they are sitting around in the control tower twiddling their thumbs.
Yet that is precisely why we need to ask some questions – or guide the President in his inquiries.
The cracks and overgrown vegetation at the airport are, sadly, symptoms of a much bigger problem; to understand why, one needs to go back to 2007 when the Civil Aviation Authority borrowed $40 million to improve the airport ahead of the Chogm feeding frenzy.

Here is a list of some of the things that were supposed to be built or repaired at the airport with the borrowed money: erecting a single-storey building with fully-fledged departure lounge, arrival lounge and public area; conversion of old control tower into museum; conversion of domestic passenger terminal building to accommodate VIP facility; construction of a new domestic terminal; construction of a new aircraft parking apron; refurbishing of the international passenger terminal; purchase of two telescopic passenger boarding bridges; construction of a VVIP terminal; installation of new baggage handling belts; beautification of the airport, among others.
Some of these improvements, such as the boarding bridges and the two new baggage belts, and the new floor tiles are visible to even sinners like your columnist who have a before-and-after feel of what $40 million can get you, plus change. Some might be too technical to be seen by mere mortals.

However, those who have read an audit commissioned by the Office of the Auditor General on the Chogm projects would not have been surprised by the cracks and overgrown vegetation. Here is what it noted on page 94: “The concrete aircraft parking apron contains some cracks and a few failures with the taxiway showing the worst failures, including soaked concrete and cracking.”
The audit was done less than a year after the airport works were completed. The President, who is a reading man, could find many of the answers he needs by perusing through it. (Here: http://bit.ly/1IPdFkg)
The rest of us might find it useful as well. The CAA is now planning to spend $430 million over the next 15 years on the airport to expand the terminals, cargo area, car park, fuel farm, expand the international terminal, build a new domestic passenger terminal and a new cargo area, expand the taxiways and build new aircraft aprons.

Yes, yes, I know it all sounds familiar but unless we are willing to get lost in the detail of these contracts and find the real problem and its masterminds, we will continue to crack under the disappointment or get lost in the vegetation at the airport.
The President can demand for the grass in airport fields to be cut and wait for it to regrow in the new master plan. Or he can uproot some weeds.

Mr Kalinaki is a Ugandan journalist based in Nairobi. [email protected] &Twitter: @Kalinaki