A closed road in the vicinity of State Lodge Nakasero. PHOTO | ISSAC KASAMANI
The public no longer has full access to at least eight public roads in Kampala City and Entebbe Municipality. The roads, which either go past or are in close proximity to both State House Entebbe and State House Nakasero, have since been sealed off, some partially, by security personnel.
All the roads in question are manned by the Special Forces Command (SFC), the team in charge of the first family’s security. Where partial access is permitted, members of the public have to go through security checkpoints manned by SFC personnel before being allowed to proceed. Only State House personnel, SFC and invited guests are allowed to go past security barriers placed at the beginning of the roads that have been fully sealed off to the public. Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the Information Communication Technology and National Guidance minister, told Saturday Monitor that the roads are off limits principally because the President’s security has to be bolstered.
“…it must be something to do with presidential security,” Minister Baryomunsi said.
Roads less travelled
Two of the affected roads are in Entebbe Municipality, within close proximity to State House Entebbe. In Kampala, several key roads near State House Nakasero are now off-limits to the public. These include Princes Avenue, which loops around State House and is closed off at the intersection with Kyaggwe Road and Lugard Road. Other affected roads include State House Close (formerly part of Victoria Avenue), Baker Close, and Nehru Avenue. Sections of Kyaggwe Road and Lugard Road are also blocked, as well as parts of Victoria Avenue near Nommo Gallery. While some roads allow limited public access, security personnel conduct thorough checks.
Outside the capital
In Entebbe Municipality, roads leading to State House Entebbe have been partially closed.
These include the route linking Kampala Road to Urigigyi Crescent, going past the main gate of State House, the State House parking lot and Rainbow Christian School. Similarly, access to Nakiwogo and Nsamizi roads, which lead to the rear ends of State House Entebbe is limited. There are security barriers along sections of Nsamizi Road where Stanbic Bank, the Magistrate’s Court and Entebbe Grade A hospital are located. The Entebbe Mayor, Mr Fabrice Rulinda, defended the closures on security grounds. He further told Saturday Monitor thus: “The road that goes to State House, unless you are talking about [the section] between State House and the Magistrate’s Court, that for security reasons, like everywhere in the world they put a barrier. So what is the problem? Why would they be accessing the gate of [the] State House?” he asked.
The Entebbe mayor also hastened to add that all entities with offices and bases on the same road continue to operate normally. “In between State House and Stanbic Bank, there is a Magistrate’s Court. The RDC’s office and the NRM branch office are also there. Stanbic Bank is running without any interruptions. The magistrate’s court is also operating normally,” he said Residents of Entebbe, who talked to Saturday Monitor, however, claimed that they have to make detours and travel long distances to reach those facilities as opposed to taking what would have been direct routes to the bank, RDC’s office or offices of the former electricity distribution firm, Umeme. Mr Rulinda, however, said this is because the road in question is under construction. “The road has been under construction. We would block the portions where they would be working. There are at least five accesses to that place,” he said.
Museveni’s position
Maj Jimmy Omara of the SFC commanders declined to comment on the matter. He instead referred the Monitor to either Mr Museveni’s Senior Press Secretary, Mr Sandor Walusimbi, or his assistant, Mr Faruk Kirunda. While Mr Walusimbi was not readily available for comment, Mr Kirunda declined to comment on the matter.
“I do not discuss security matters,” Mr Kirunda told Saturday Monitor. Earlier, Mr Museveni expressed his dissatisfaction with the frequent closure of roads whenever he travels to different parts of the country. However, he stated that such closures would persist until the threat posed by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) is fully addressed. “When I’m moving around, they stop vehicles, which is something I wouldn’t like, but because we still have these types of elements, that’s why the security takes precautions, which sometimes inconvenience the public. But we are really weeding out especially ADF in Congo, and we shall get rid of those inconveniences after we have thoroughly uprooted ADF,” Museveni said while addressing the nation in December 2023. Mr Museveni’s submission was, however, focused on temporary road closures and did not apply to permanent closures, such as those affecting roads around State House in Entebbe and State Lodge in Nakasero, Kampala. Mr Freddie David Egesa, a private investigator and security analyst with FDE Consult, has expressed criticism of certain actions taken under the guise of securing the President. “It is unfortunate that the PG [presidential guard] units chose to move the President at a routine timing to the extent that people now know if the President is about to pass and even in which way. The President’s movement is these days done at the jam peak, say in the evening when everybody is going out of town. Then, the duration, in some areas, motor vehicles are held for an hour. All this can be managed and replanned,” Mr Egesa told Saturday Monitor.
Impact
The issue of road closures continues to dominate debate in both the House and the public square. In May 2023, Mr Ibrahim Ssemujju, the Kira Municipality lawmaker, proposed that the government acquire Mr Museveni and his family a compound where he can be interacting with people instead of “disturbing people’s movements by always blocking roads.” The lawmaker, who is also the shadow Finance minister, proceeded to note then: “We have roads in Kololo, but, these days when coming to Parliament, there are trucks that seal off the roads when the President is having meetings, even the KCCA roads near Nakasero State House. Maybe we should procure a compound for the President because if it’s not him, it’s the wife or son. I use the banks in Kololo, and sometimes, I go without money for the whole week.” Whereas Mr Ssemujju’s motion was not bought into, the House generally agreed that the road closures were responsible for some of the traffic gridlocks experienced in Kampala.
Whereas the monetary cost of the traffic jams could not be quantified, in June 2023, the Parliamentary Committee on the National Economy published a report that indicated traffic jams, along with, among others, the high cost of utilities and high interest rates, were some of the impediments to private sector competitiveness. The House Committee noted in a report “that traffic jam causes productivity losses in the county with productive labour in Uganda spending 90 minutes a day in traffic jams, which translates to 450 minutes (seven days) a week in five working days, equivalent to one working day lost to traffic jam per week, equivalent to 52 days in a year.”
Public outcry
Last month, Dr Judith Nalukwago, a dental surgeon, who previously served as the 85th vice guild president of Makerere University, stirred a hornet’s nest on the public square. This was after she wrote on the social platform X thus: “Protecting the President is important, but where’s humanity. Should we just let people continue to die in ambulances because the President is passing?” She added: “A person dies at Arena Mall, and their destination was Nsambya hospital [two crying face emojis]. You want to rule over dead people? I am disgusted.” One response to Dr Nalukwago’s post read thus: “The Traffic and Road Safety Act 1998 provides a right of way for both emergency vehicles like ambulances and VIPs, including the president’s convoy. There is a lacuna in that law. It doesn’t explicitly address scenarios where the two intersect. So legislators need to address that.”
