Museveni’s Congo roads and Dott’s badly behaved drivers

On Wednesday, June 16, 2021, President Museveni and President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo graced the launch of the Mpondwe-Beni Road Bituminisation Project. The project, whose entire physical profile is on Congolese soil, was to be funded by the government of Uganda.

This project (Mpondwe-Beni) is currently under implementation by Dott Services Ltd, a Ugandan registered company. Dott Services Ltd has established a logistical base camp at Kabirizi (which neighbours Kiburara, our Kiburara, to the east just separated by River Nyamugasana).

The sand required by Dott Services is mined from River Nyamugasana. Whereas residents of Kiburara have been mining this sand for a long time, the sand consumption of Dott Services is industrial (compared to our domestic use). It is likely to degrade this very important ecosystem.

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The news of the government of Uganda paying the first instalment of judgment debt to DR Congo was covered widely in the Ugandan mediascape. I first heard about the payment from a senior government official in Kinshasa. The judgment derives from a case DR Congo filed in the International Court of Justice accusing Uganda of plundering Congolese resources.

In 2017, I was a member of TS17, a Facebook Group of NRM cadres. Although I am not an NRM Cadre, I was honoured with an invitation to the group. It is worth noting that Gen Salim Saleh (yes, that one) was an active member of this group.

One time, we had a debate on this Judgment Debt Uganda owed to the DRC. I swore on the pain of my traditional ritual circumcision that Uganda would pay DRC. Because of the passion some of us put into this debate, Gen Saleh asked us to write a paper on how Uganda could pay this debt without destabilising ‘our economy’.

So, when I heard that Uganda had paid the DRC $65m, I smiled knowingly. Someone in Kinshasa told me that the said premier tranche (first instalment) of the judgment debt will be transferred to the accounts of a Ugandan company involved in doing some work in the DRC. Which Ugandan company will the Congolese pay? Guess… La vie est belle (life is beautiful/good).

This is the storyline: you owe your neighbour some money. The said neighbour has been struggling to build his kitchen. The said kitchen has also been making you uncomfortable.

So, you strike a deal with your neighbour: when you pay his debt, he should use the money to build a better kitchen. And then the sweetener: you will provide the company to build the said kitchen. Chew on that.

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I own at least more than one acre of land in Kiburara. I have one and a half cows and the charitable heart to allow a road (for public use) on the said land. This (motorable) road gives the community access to River Nyamugasana and its rich resources (water and sand).

Mr Clovis Ntuyenabo has a contract to supply sand to Dott Services. So, Dott Services heavy trucks pass through my piece of land to ferry the sand from the river. But a Dott Services driver, perhaps assuming this was a public road, threatened to beat me up (because I was filming his lorry degrading my land).

Even with my above-average knowledge of English, I have no words to describe the abusive driver of Dott Services Truck No 25. But we know how to handle such people. The very civil minimum is to have the Dott Services Ltd management remove him from this contract area; otherwise, he would not survive in Congo.

Mr Bisiika is the executive editor of the East African Flagpost. [email protected]