How our vigilance led KCCA contractor to change ways

We recently wrote about Abu-Baker Technical Services and General Supplies Limited, a contractor for Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA). The company was contracted by KCCA to construct a drainage canal on Bajja Baseka Road in our community.
The community complained that the contractor’s site management was conducted by people who didn’t seem to appreciate and mitigate social impacts on the project beneficiary communities. Even when I am known for being crowd-shy, I participated in the community’s effort to have their voices heard on this particular issue.
We petitioned KCCA and our voice was well received. KCCA advised the contractor to respond to our demands. And dear reader, I am here to report that our efforts bore some fruits.

Abu-Baker Technical Services and General Supplies Ltd stopped excavation and helped the people to remove their vehicles from homes whose access to the road had been made impossible by the project. Now we can use our vehicles; although we have to park them in public parking facility at a fee.
Although vehicles cannot use the road now, the road can at least be used as passage de pietons (pedestrian passage) with very minimal encumbrance.
All the access roads that had been used as hosts for the excavated earths have been unblocked, save for one. Even for this yet-to-be unblocked access road, the community and the contractor had to agree on a time frame when the excavated earths would be removed.

Flimsy bridges have been constructed over the trench to give access to homes and properties. And any other complaint the community has raised has been responded to with the ease associated with a corporate customer care facility.
And the rate at which the execution of the project is moving is encouraging. I have a feeling Abu-Baker Technical Services and General Supplies would like to finish the work and leave this vigilant community.
The lesson I have learnt about this issue is that the law works for the vigilant. When I advised the community leaders that we should petition KCCA over our predicament, some members even laughed at me saying I was ‘just dreaming’.

Some community members even said KCCA doesn’t care whether the project affects communities or not. Yet when I called City Hall engineer Andrew Kitaka, his response and demeanour was corporate, professional and very understanding.
Another lesson I learnt was that project supervision at KCCA also needs improvement. If KCCA’s presence had been very conspicuous, things would not have reached the level they reached - threatening violence against the contractors.
As residents, we after all, were supposed to engage KCCA instead of Abu-Baker Technical Services and General Supplies Ltd. But their (KCCA) absence (or limited presence at the project site) led the community to vent their frustrations on the contractors.

The workers now have protective gear and the concrete to be used was sourced from ROKO or some such other company that sells raw concrete. This gives some guarantee on the quality assurances; mixing concrete on the site is likely to have quality and administrative challenges.
With our community vigilance, there was even some community social engagement with the contractor. Meals to the workers are supplied by locals from the community, not to mention the purchasing power of a labour force of more than 25 men, who have spent more than a month in our community.
The contractor workers buy chapattis, water (boiled), and other private-to-user items from the shops in the community. And we have been assured that by December 31, we shall have our road back - complete with a drainage that will give value to the road and our properties.

Mr Bisiika is the executive editor of East African Flagpost.