Roads in Kampala are bad, but soon, they will be a lot better

Body parts have a canny way of paining. When you have a migraine, you wish the pain was in your index finger or thumb. The day you get what’s locally known as Entunuka, is when you will wish it was instead a tooth ache; if you have ever had a tooth ache, you will agree nothing pains as bad, not even an abscess in the ‘leg pits’ and so on. That only goes to tell you that a pain on any part of the body is equally debilitating! 

In my career of corporate and public communications, I thought the worst was explaining a national electricity blackout minutes before a much anticipated TV programme such as a World Cup final; but that pales in comparison to explaining why instead of roads, we have pothole riddled tracks to city residents, visitors and business persons! On Christmas day alone, I received more calls lambasting the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) which I am happy to work for, over the poor state of the roads than wishing me a merry one!

And this was not from foes, but good friends! First order of business in the new year was answering  why, city roads are the way they are-shambolic!

That Ntinda II, Kulambiro Ring road, Lweza-Kabuusu, Lukuli, John Babiiha and others are a testament of what a beautiful city boulevard can look like after a ‘make over’ does not count! Salaama Road residents are cursing from the high heavens, I am almost being ‘excommunicated’ by acquaintances who live along the Kiteezi road; I can barely walk freely in my hood of Bugoloobi because of Old Port Bell, Portbell and Spring roads! I will need a mask to jog along 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th streets industrial area lest I get stoned! These are just a few from which the cry and hue of the state of city roads is loudest.

Now listen folks, this beautiful city of Kampala has some 2,100km of roads. Believe it or not, only less than 700km of these are paved/tarmac roads. But even of these 700Km, the vast majority were paved in the 1960s and have had more than their fair share of repair-they just need to be redone! They have outlived their lifespan and need a complete overhaul. Road engineers say a paved road is expected to last 15-20 years before reconstruction. Slightly over 350 Km of Kampala’s roads are over 35 years old! No further amount of patching will make a difference on these, they need overhauling! The ‘younger’ ones need routine maintenance.

At an end year press conference, KCCA Executive Director Dorothy Kisaka did candidly share that KCCA receives a paltry  shs 26 billion annually for roads maintenance yetKCCA needs no less than shs100 billion to keep the current roads maintained to motorable condition.

For roads reconstruction and overhauling of the senile ones, KCCA needs some shs 375 billion per year for 50km alone. This means, the beyond-repair-dilapidated-360km would be ‘sorted’ in seven years ,according to the KCCA ED.

But here is the good news! KCCA received funding of $288 million from African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Development Fund to implement road rehabilitation activities in the city under the Kampala City Roads Rehabilitation Project (KCRRP). This project shall see the construction of 69.70km of roads complete with associated drainage works including improvement to 22 traffic junctions, 123km of non motorised transport facilities (pedestrian walkways), commercial vehicles parking places, Bus depots, 30 public toilets, six markets along project roads for women vendors Installation of 1,600 energy efficient streetlights, and tree planting. 69.7km may look a small distance, but within a city, this means many roads and scattered across our five divisions.

For context, Salaama road is perhaps the longest of the roads considered under this programme at slightly over 8 km while 5th street industrial area is 0.8km! On the KCCA social media handles, the full list of the roads under this project, their location and date of start of construction has been shared severally; but looks like for every share, 100 new distraught and disgusted city residents fume with impatience as to when works start.

While many are Doubting Thomases of ‘we shall believe it when we see the graders roaring’, there is also concern over the length of time for these works averaging between 30-40 months! Even I, from a layman perspective, do share these same concerns. The relief is that, well, at least we have assurance that these roads shall be worked to agreed technical specifications, within contract duration and budget!

Aside these roads to be worked on from AfDB funding, there is also the Great Kampala Metropolitan Urban Development Programme that’s going to rehabilitate 185 km and signalise several junctions. Just last year alone, KCCA contracted 34.42km of roads across the 5 divisions for upgrading and rehabilitation using government funding. This could have been more in subsequent years but sadly, in the next Financial year, KCCA has only received a shs 10 billion allocation for infrastructure development down from the usual shs70 billion-which was also not sufficient. 

Beyond actual road construction works in the pipeline, there is quite some planning and strategic partnerships in the offing. For example, in 2022, KCCA signed a MoU with a British Company COLAS to carry out a feasibility study on the roads in Kampala and thereafter prepare a project for road maintenance/rehabilitation. The project name is Kampala City Roads and Bridges Upgrading Project (KCRBUP)/Annuity roads. We await Cabinet approval for the Kampala City Lighting and Infrastructure Improvement Project (KCLIIP) funded by a grant and loan from AFD (French Development Agency). The project involves designing, installing and operating of 20,000 streetlights and construction of 77km of walkways (NMT facilities) in the city.

That’s not to mention the collaborative project on traffic control management between KCCA and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) whose works have started. Beyond bestowing unto this city a centralized digitized traffic control centre, the project will lead to signalisation of up to 27 junctions and removal of five roundabouts in the City. These roundabouts are Rwenzori Courts, Grand Imperial, Mulago, Mulago Mortuary and Kubiri.

Let me conclude by challenging us to one aspect of having and enjoying good city infrastructure! Drainage is proving to be a major cause of the fast degradation of our roads. The biggest enabler of poor drainage is our (pardon my brutal honesty) barbaric disposal of garbage as city dwellers-I won’t dwell on this for long, we have all witnessed plastic bottles being thrown out of expensive cars along our streets and sacks of garbage dumped along roads in our neighbourhoods.

On street lights, we have witnessed the theft of these lights, especially the solar powered ones which we stripe from panels, batteries to bulbs. Manhole covers continue to go missing that cover major drainage and other ground ducts! Banakibuga, Tweddeko! City residents, let’s get our act together!

As we wait for the contractors to mobilise and start works in no more than 60 days from now, some remedial repairs are being done on some stretches that are proving impassable. Even with this as a stop gap measure, some city residents are already complaining! Folks, let first aid be first aid-the real treatment is underway.

Let’s brace ourselves for the necessary inconvenience of dust, diversions and distress from these works-as I always argue, for a fine omelet to be served, some eggs, sadly, must break! 

Potholes are a pain, so are the remedial works on our roads, so is the duration it takes…but in the end; all is well that ends well. This state of roads, I am optimistic, shall end well with ‘all hands on deck’; from government commitment, KCCA supervision and citizen proactivenes among others!

The plan

Aside these roads to be worked on from AfDB funding, there is also the Great Kampala Metropolitan Urban Development Programme that’s going to rehabilitate 185 km and signalize several junctions.

Just last year alone, KCCa contracted 34.42km of roads across the five divisions for upgrading and rehabilitation using government funding. 

*The writer is the head, Public & Corporate Affairs, KCCA