Collapsed Bukedea-Pallisa bridge kills one, disables 2

What you need to know:

  • Mr Ahmed Awoii Okwir, the Unra Soroti station manager, said the site in question falls under Mbale station but Mr Moses Olemukan, the Bukedea chairperson, said when they approached Mbale, they were told that the bridge falls under Soroti.

A bridge connecting Bukedea and Pallisa districts has so far killed one and injured two others after it collapsed on April 30, last year.
Amoroto Bridge in Kidongole Sub-county, Bukedea, has not been worked for the past year.
Mr Samuel Oluka, 60, a resident, told Daily Monitor last week that a boy is nursing a broken leg in Tororo after falling off the bridge while riding a bicycle across the wooden walkways improvised by residents.

“In September last year, we also lost a 19-year-old student of Kidongole Seed Secondary School, who was crossing the bridge. She fell off and was swept away by running water, her body was found the next day in the rice fields,” Mr Oluka said.
“We are informed it is a Unra (Uganda National Roads Authority) road, let them come to our rescue lest it disables and kills more, we have tried [seeking help from] both districts but they tell us that they cannot afford the money needed to fix the bridge,” he added.

Mr Faustino Osuwan, a resident of Kaseibei Village, Butebo Sub-county in Pallisa, said he has sold 10 head of cattle and land to treat his 30-year-old son whose spinal code was dislocated after falling off the bridge on October 10, last year.
“My son has been referred to India for an operation, Shs45m is needed, yet I have spent more than Shs35m on treatment in Kisubi, Platinum, Kizito hospitals but to no avail, my son has been in motionless for the last seven months,” he said.

Mr Osuwan said his son was a bread winner for his family of six children, but since then, he has assumed that responsibility.
Mr Micheal Okwii, the secretary works in Bukedea, said he and the district chairperson have visited several offices at the Ministry of Works and Unra for intervention but in vain.
“That family needs more than Shs45m to go to India but have failed to raise it since they were referred in February. It is a peasant family, it is like the bridge signed a death certificate of this young man,” he said. Mr Okwii said last year the team from the ministry visited the site and estimated its repairs at Shs1.2b but they have never returned.

However, Mr Julius Musinguzi, the Unra regional manager, said rehabilitation and upgrade of key bridges in the region is underway.
He said Unra complaints that need to be addressed are being handled by the authority’s directorate of planning.
Mr Ahmed Awoii Okwir, the Unra Soroti station manager, said the site in question falls under Mbale station but Mr Moses Olemukan, the Bukedea chairperson, said when they approached Mbale, they were told that the bridge falls under Soroti.