Katonga: What if God had asked Unra to build a bridge across the Red Sea?

If, during the Exodus, the Lord Most High had instructed our Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) to construct a bridge for Moses and the Israelites to cross the Red Sea, chances are pound to penny they’d still be at it even now, more than 4,000 years later. They’d be just tweeting excuses and taking the press on tours of the on-going “works”. 

No more charitable conclusion can possibly be drawn seeing that Unra is running around like a headless chicken, drawing blanks over a small, simple issue at the “River” Katonga Bridge which collapsed at the beginning of May. While small vehicles have recently began to pass, the traffic most essential for market stability and price equilibrium – lorries and buses – cannot use the bridge. They have to face several hours (five for a very fast bus and double that for heavy lorries) to connect from Mpigi, via Sembabule-Villa Maria to Masaka.

Buses need nine or 10 hours from Kampala to Mbarara; all day or all night if you are doing Kampala-Bushenyi-Ishaka or Kampala-Ntungamo-Kabale. That explains the paradox, in fact absurdity, that while the distance increased immensely, bus fares decreased dramatically.

For those who haven’t been to Katonga, listen: the collapse was like two and a half metres long. The whole bridge is just a few metres longer. And take my word; as a “river” Katonga is much overrated. It is just a glorified papyrus swamp…the dream fishing ground for anyone who enjoys mudfish or wants to make papyrus mats. 

In the rainy seasons, it briefly floods a bit, not quite unlike the quintessential sleepy, lazy tortoise that pokes its head out at the sound of intruders, looks around with a slow, half-eyed gaze, then, satisfied that life is still good, retreats into its shell and snoozes on. In the dry season, you can walk across the swamp and pick mudfish with your bare hands. The biggest deal about Katonga is that it was the scene of a decisive battle between Museveni’s guerrillas and the Uganda National Liberation Army in late 1985 as the guerrillas moved to take over Kampala. Beyond that, it really is nothing. 

The Owen Falls Bridge at Jinja, which is just under a kilometre long, built across the mighty Nile, the longest and one of the most powerful rivers in the world, was launched in 1954 and it has never collapsed. Katonga Bridge, a Johnny-come-lately, needed just one good rain to come tumbling down. The difference is that Owen Falls Bridge was built by the British (serious, visionary, intentional and corruption free), while the Katonga one…you know what, let me just pour myself a cup of porridge! 

You may also want to know that the old Katonga Bridge built by the British is intact. What collapsed is the section added on a few years ago by Unra. So here we are with a roads authority, also highly overrated, which needs ages to sort out a small, broken bridge over a swamp and looking at precedent, it can’t even last the distance!

Had this Katonga debacle happened in Rwanda, read my lips: the CEO of the roads authority would have been fired. The CEO of the contractor, together with several of his key executives would have been enjoying the hospitality of the Rwanda National Police…or taking lessons in prison. The construction company would have been blacklisted and while at it, required to meet the cost of repairs.

But in Uganda anything goes. No questions have been asked of the competence of the contractors or the government team that oversaw the construction. Instead, the taxpayer must suffer twice: firstly, footing the repairs.
Secondly, by braving the economic downturn pursuant to the bridge collapse: bus companies are making losses. The cost of transporting goods is up, thereby raising the cost of doing business, raising inflation and cost of living while at the same time for many, lowering the standard of living.

Katonga Bridge is an affirmation that President Museveni has managed just two unqualified successes: one, to acquire power. Two, keep that power longer than anyone else before him and, you can be sure, longer than anyone after him will manage. Everything else about his government has been the same sorry and sordid tale of incompetence and lack of accountability.

Mr Tegulle is an advocate of the High Court of Uganda     [email protected]