A section of the Kigunga Road at Entebbe International Airport. So far, four protests have been held to alert state actors to the dire state of Kigungu Road. PHOTO/IVAN KAMANA WALUNYOLO
If you have landed at Entebbe International Airport during the day, Kigungu Road must have undoubtedly caught your attention.
While it is barely visible by nightfall, the reverse is true during the day. And, unfortunately, the aerial sight, after catching a glimpse of the picturesque Lake Victoria, with its equally stunning green savannah on the shorelines, often crumbles into an eyesore.
Here is why: while roads within the vicinity of international airports in different global cities are well and truly a beauty to behold—tarmacked and adequately illuminated by light at dusk—Kigungu Road is an exception to the rule.
The red dirt road spans the whole of six kilometres and is punctuated with glaring potholes. There is a general consensus among players in Uganda’s tourism industry that the state of affairs in question, as regards the road, is as dire as the consequences. “You can’t convince even a layman that Uganda is beautiful when you land over a dusty road,” Mr Amos Wekesa, the founder, proprietor and managing director of Great Lakes Safaris Limited, a tour operating company, told Saturday Monitor, adding, “At least each one of us keeps the front of the house cleaner than anywhere else. That road is a priority.”
The road has in fact been a priority. On paper, at least. “Several politicians, including President Museveni, have used the murram road in their speeches to rally voters for support, promising that it would be worked on,” Mr Michael Kakembo, the Entebbe Municipality lawmaker, told Saturday Monitor. Empty promises? And history offers support, with records showing that promises, at least from President Museveni, have been made to tarmac the road since the electioneering period that led up to the 1996 General Elections.
That promise and others saw Mr Museveni poll 10,070 votes in Entebbe Municipality during the 1996 presidential poll. This was head and shoulders above what rivals Mr Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere (3,596) and Mr Kibirige Mayanja (422) mustered at the ballot. On January 24 this year, Mr Fabrice Rulinda, the Entebbe mayor, introduced his municipal council members to the idea of unburdening the Works and Transport ministry in a bid to upgrade the road. “The road is only six kilometres.
Since it is under Ministry of Works and Transport, politicians have and will continue to use it for political gains,” Mr Rulinda said, adding, “As Entebbe Municipality, our priority has been on infrastructure. But for this road, we are limited because it’s not under our mandate.” The six kilometres that Kigungu Road straddles connect to the outskirts of Entebbe Municipality, such as Bussi, Buwaya, and Makusa.
The road stretches from the United Nations Regional Service Centre up to the shoreline in Kigungu at Mapeera Kigungu Catholic Church, the birthplace of Catholicism in Uganda. The church was built in 1933 to pay homage to Fr Simeon Lourdel, alias Mapeera, and Brother Amans. The two French missionaries docked at Kigungu’s peninsula on February 17, 1879 after their canoe was rocked by Lake Victoria’s strong waves. It is evident that locals in Entebbe Municipality hold Kigungu Road so dear. Many do not understand why it is perpetually placed on the back burner among the roads lined up for upgrading. The road leads to Kigungu, a village populated by 35,000 people whose livelihood is tethered to fishing. So far, four protests have been held to alert state actors to the dire state of Kigungu Road.
Hoping for better
Mr Mutebi Nyasio, a fisherman and councillor in the area, said the road has impacted the price of fish. Transportation, he further told Saturday Monitor, is limited, as is the security.
“We have written letters through our council to the former Unra [Uganda National Roads Authority]. We received no response, but Minister (of the Works and Transport docket) Katumba Wamala told us that this matter is on the President’s table,” Mr Nyasio disclosed.
Mr Stuart Lubwama, a teacher, highlighted grave risks occasioned by the road being surrounded by a dense thicket. “No-one wishes to travel on [the road] at night,” he said, adding, “It even attracts thugs. We fear that at some point someone can be killed and thrown in a thicket.”
HOPEFUL
Recently, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the Chief of Defence Forces of the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF), revealed that the Ugandan army’s engineering
brigade will step in if the Works and Transport ministry continues to dilly-dally. “This road is a shame,” he said, adding, “The UPDF engineering brigade shall soon fix it if the Ministry of Works has failed.”
It remains to be seen what the central government’s plan for the road is. This even after Mr Kyofatogabye Kabuye, the Kampala minister, commissioned the construction of 5km feeder roads at a tune of Shs104 billion under the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area Urban Development Programme (GKMA-UDP).
Entebbe has of late been blipping on the radar of the central government. As a matter of fact, upon commissioning of a new ferry in Nakiwogo, Minister Wamala said the target for Entebbe was to usher in a new ferry to Bussi Island. He also talked about tarmacking Kigungu Road.
