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Roadworks drag Kampala to its knees
A section of Mukwano Road in Kampala closed to allow roadworks to go on recently.
What you need to know:
Unlike a few months before when a motorist from Ggaba, in Kampala’s south, could take between 30 minutes to an hour to access the inner city, motorists on the route now take two hours or longer due to traffic buildup on the back of multiple diversions.
Multiple ongoing roadworks in Kampala have paralysed the city, trapping commuters in long jams and eating away man hours, according to a survey by this newspaper.
Motorists, employers and employees, business owners and transiting travelers unanimously said the concurrent infrastructure upgrades by three government agencies, whereas welcome, have piled misery due to improper planning, road closure and diversions.
Unlike a few months before when a motorist from Ggaba, in Kampala’s south, could take between 30 minutes and an hour to access the inner city, motorists on the route now take two hours or longer due to traffic build up on the back of multiple diversions.
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Three government entities, the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) and Uganda Railway Corporation (URC), are currently undertaking parallel infrastructure upgrades covering more than 20 roads, associated drainage channels and rail links.
The engineering works spread across parts of the city’s five divisions, although a lot of it is concentrated in Makindye and Central divisions, where guests for the forthcoming Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and G77+China summits will either stay, transit or attend events.
The big meets are scheduled to run back-to-back at Commonwealth Resort Munyonyo on January 15-19 and January 20-23, 2024, sparkling urgency and speed for completion of the work with the international events just four weeks away.
There are seven roads, street lighting and two drainage channels being worked on in Makindye Division in the name of NAM while City Hall under the Kampala City Roads Rehabilitation (KCRR) project is working on 13 other roads.
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KCCA is a member of the organising committee of the international events and it has named Kabalagala-Ggaba, Wavamuno, UCB Rise, Lukuli Rise, Prince Badru Kakungulu-Lukuli Rise and Mobutu roads among those also being improved while drainages at Soya-Bunga and Auto Spa are being rebuilt and desilted.
These engineering works coincide with big project separate works; that of Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) building a fly-over at the Clock Tower over which traffic had already been diverted before the disruptions related to the latest works set in.
Road construction works on the Ggaba-Kabalagala Road last Saturday.
Uganda expects up to 5,000 delegates, among them 70 heads of states and governments, will attend the summits, dwarfing the attendance at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) that Kampala hosted in 2007.
This, according to KCCA, has required the teams to work overdrive with December 30, which is a fortnight away, the completion date if unrelenting rains peter out.
The maze of idling cars has entrapped Bodas Bodas too unlike in the past when the commercial motorcycles provided the perfect get-away means to evade or manoeuvre through jam.
The outcome: long vehicular queues, longer travel hours for same or longer distance due to diversion, higher fuel burn and increased transport fares or costs of maintaining cars.
Mr Isaac Mayanja used to spend Shs50,000 per week to fuel his Vitz for return trips from his place of abode in Kireka, Wakiso District, to his stationery shop on Nasser Road in central Kampala.
It’s a 9.5-kilometre one-way distance which, according to Googlemaps computations, would take a motorist 26 minutes to cover.
But since the onset of the road works, with major engineering excavations and rebuilding at the Nakawa intersection on the busy Kampala-Jinja thoroughfare, a trip by car between Kireka township to Kampala Central Business District (CBD) lasts an hour at the shortest and two or more hours at peak traffic.
“Now I use between Shs70,000 and Shs100,000 in addition to the over three hours I spend in traffic jams. Things are not good,” said Mr Mayanja.
Kampala is circumscribed by the larger Wakiso District, and many people who work in the capital reside in other metropolitan areas such as Mukono, Entebbe and Wakiso. As such, they commute or trek from home to work and back daily, which makes the disruptions of road closures a costly bite.
Many individuals employed for this article said they can no longer estimate how long it will take them to reach work place and most run late for appointments because a road open the previous evening can be closed the next morning, making a mess of route planning.
One such road closed and opened either side at different intervals within a day since December 1 is the Access Road, which connects Jinja Road to 6th, 7th and 8th Streets in Industrial Area and Mukwano Road linking to Mukwano Industry.
The reasons are two: an upgrade of Mukwano Road roundabout and fixing of the railway level crossing to Uganda Railway Corporation headquarters and other westerly outskirts of Kampala.
Roadworks on the road leading to Speke Resort Munyonyo has affected traffic flow, with many drivers finding themselves stuck in jam for hours. photos/stephen otage
A resident of Kampala’s leafy Kololo neighbourhood who works in Industrial Area, told this newspaper that it’s easier for them to connect via Jinja and Entebbe Roads, exiting eastwards from Clock Tower via Nsamby Roundabout onto Mukwano Road and drive past Kibuli Police Training School to loop into the Industrial Area on Mpogo Road.
Nature appears to have conspired to add to travellers’ torment, according to a one Prossy, whose work place is on Kampala Road, but she lives outside the city.
“These days rain starts between 5am and 6am and it drags up to around 8am. Remember that time no one, including us owning motor vehicles, can move due to the floods. By the time you hit the road, you will find hundreds of your colleagues stuck in the tiny alternative routes given to you and you feel the pinch of traffic jam,” she said.
Mr Rashid Ssekindi, the chairperson of Uganda Taxi Operators Federation, said their customers have resorted to using Boda Bodas and others trek due to traffic jams.
“We are being kicked out of the market. I wish these people, especially the [Special Forces Command] SFC do not close the entire road they are working on and allowed traffic to partially flow like others because we are being highly affected,” Mr Ssekindi said.
Other motorists said they have abandoned personal cars to save on costs and beat traffic snarls ups by using commercial taxis who have upped their fares by Shs1,000 to Shs3,000, citing longer diversion routes.
Mr Dickson Mujuni, the secretary general of the Boda Boda Industry Uganda, an umbrella association of the riders, said the higher charges enable members recover increased expenses on fuel and repair.
“Remember that alternative routes attract a lot of vehicles, thus, causing traffic jams. But we shall go back to the normal rates when all this is settled,” he said, resurrecting memories of a similar promise that public service transporter made at the height of Covid-19 pandemic but never implemented.
It is not only motorists negatively affected. Businesses too are crying.
Mr Anthony Ogalo, the chairperson of the Sustainable Energies and Petroleum Association (Sepa), an umbrella body for over 40 oil marketing companies, said that they are operating in losses because of the ongoing diversions where the heavy duty vehicles are not catered for in alternative routes.
“The diversion has worsened the traffic Jam especially for us fuel dealers who have outlets in the Industrial Area. The Mukwano junction was blocked for heavy vehicles and the seventh and fifth streets which we could use as alternative routes are in worse shape. The roads are totally bad,” he said.
It is in the context of complaints about broken roads, which on 8th street forces motorists to drive off the creviced road, that at Kampala Capital City Authority engineer Maurice Kairania has asked for patience because the ongoing road works will bring relief and joy to users soon.
“The works are too much but our people should be patient with us because they will have a long lasting laughter ahead, remember you cannot have an omelette before breaking an egg,” he said.
If the rains relent, Mr Kairania said they could complete 90 percent of the works by the end of this year, pointing to the round-the-clock working schedules.
Whereas the overdrive could deliver the upgraded infrastructure on time, and perhaps within budget, new questions on quality erosion have emerged based on thin bitumen layering and a bumpy surfacing of newly-done Jinja highway section at Nakawa intersection.
Back to the fuel marketers, Mr Ogalo said the cost of moving petrol and diesel to depots across the city has increased yet demand is low due to owners abandoning cars at home.
The three lead agencies in the infrastructure upgrades - Unra, URC and KCCA – have face criticism for choosing to do the works at the same time, paralysing sections of the city through road blockades and diversions.
Officials would not explain whether the works were coordinated or not.
KCCA’s Kairania said it is not their wish to see city dwellers suffer with traffic jams, but the urgency of the NAM summit prompted them to include it on the priority list.
The Authority, through KCRRP, last year secured $246m (Shs931b) from the African Development Bank (ADB) to work on 69.7 kilometres of city roads, most in sorry state.
Modernisation of different roads - Port-bell, Spring, Old Mubende, Kigala, Kabega, Suuna I, Mugema and Sentema – which collectively stretch some 17 kilometres, is underway.
URC spokesman John Linonn Sengendo said they needed to have Access Road shut because fixing the railway crossing level would complete the circuit of the revamped Kampala-Mukono railway, which he said will be a game-changer towards decongesting the city.
Mr Allan Ssempebwa, the Unra spokesperson, said that the Kampala flyover project, which has resulted in traffic diversions and hold ups, is due to be completed before the end of this month.
“There are significant improvements. We have a flyover, widened lanes, pedestrian walkways on the side and in the space so there is going to be a bit of changes in traffic flow. We should not expect more traffic jams because the flyover will help to decongest the city by providing such improvements and we should not be expecting more flooding around that area,” he said.
What others say...
Mr Dickson Mujuni, the secretary general of the Boda-Boda Industry Uganda
Remember that alternative routes attract a lot of vehicles, thus, causing traffic jam. But we shall go back to the normal rates when all this is settled.
Mr Abdul Rashid Bengo, the chairperson of Kansanga Vendors Market Limited
More than 90 vendors from diverse locations, including Entebbe highway which connects Entebbe International Airport from where arriving dignitaries will be chauffeured from, lost property worth Shs40m-Shs50m that fateful day.
Ms Mary Mukasa, the chairperson of Women Committee in Makindye Division
We are suffering because the KCCA has even gone for people who are not living in the urban areas.
Mr Allan Ssempebwa, the UNRA spokesperson
There are significant improvements. We have a flyover, widened lanes, pedestrian walkways on the side and in the space so there is going to be a bit of changes in traffic flow. We should not expect more traffic jams.
