Here’s what explains mess in city, suburbs as KCCA naps

For instance, the road linking Kamwokya to the Northern Bypass and the same bypass to Kyebando was cut off for several hours and houses in the slums submerged.

Other flooded roads in the last few years include the 6th, 7th and 8th streets in the city's Industrial Area. The floods have since worsened with the ongoing repair work on some roads.

Also not spared were the Kyebando Ring Road and Kisuule-Mukalazi Road in Bukoto, both narrow and pot-holed, and the Old Kira Road and several link routes to the Northern Bypass.

Often cut off after every downpour are also roads in downtown Kisenyi, Katwe, Rubaga, Bwaise, and Kawempe on the fringes of the city.

At the Kyambogo junction on Jinja highway, the cyclists were only rescued by the prompt action of their colleagues. But this disaster wasn’t an isolated case as the same spot and the nearby Banda-Kyambogo junction on the same highway had motorists and other road users often stuck for hours whenever it rained, with the floods cutting off some sections of Kampala-Jinja highway.

“Whenever it rains, this whole area floods with contaminated water. That is why I always wear gumboots,” a boda boda motorcyclist at Kyambogo Road Stage said.

He said the people in the area have been subjected to ceaseless floods because of encroachment on wetlands and the narrow drainage channels in the area.

“I have lived in Kyambogo since 1994. There was a big swamp here where we used to grow yams, but the wetland is no more, and all you can now see are buildings. I have come to believe that the law that bars people from encroaching on wetlands targets the poor, but the rich remain untouchable,” the motorcyclist said.

A similar concern was raised by hundreds of families evicted from the Lubigi wetland in Nansana Municipality in Wakiso District in June. But the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) has refuted the allegations.

On the stretch connecting Kamwokya and Kyebando, the residents accused the city authorities of neglecting the road for years.

On November 4, Ms Roselyn Apio, who operates a makeshift food stall on the road, could not set up her kitchen by 11am because the roadside where she cooks food was flooded.

Ms Apio, who said she has lived in the area for more than 15 years, the road has never received a patch of tarmac.

“I don’t know when these small patches of tarmac you see here were laid. I have been here for more than 15 years and I have never seen tarmac and yet KCCA officials come to collect taxes from our petty businesses,” she said.

Mr Omar Nsereko, who operates a furniture workshop on the same road, said whenever it rains, the valleys get flooded and the road is cut off.

“During the rainy season, we suffer losses because customers cannot access our businesses. But when it is time for taxes, the KCCA officials know all the roads they have never worked on, but when it is service delivery time, they are nowhere to be seen. We are treated as if we are not part of the city,” he said.

Mr Nsereko asked the KCCA officials to prioritise the tarmacking of the roads within Kamwokya and other slums like in other parts of the city.

“Don’t we deserve better too? Kamwokya is part of the Central Division and we generate a lot of money in taxes, so why are we treated as if we don’t deserve clean roads?” he questioned.

For motorists and pedestrians, plying the run-down streets of Kampala City has been a nightmare. Whenever it rains, the city dwellers worry about floods, roads being cut off, open manholes, and water being contaminated with waste like faeces and other pollutants.

Some residents, especially those in informal settlements and not connected to the main sewer lines, take advantage of the rain to release sewage into the drainage channels.

State of city roads

An April 2023 report to Parliament on the state of KCCA roads showed that the city has a total road network of 2,100 kilometres, with only 30 percent paved and 70 percent being dirt road or unpaved.

The report said most of the paved roads have served beyond their lifespan of 20 years and are due for overhaul or reconstruction. This probably explains the state of disrepair of the city roads.

“The situation has not been helped by the increased traffic levels on the roads, which in turn cause increased wear and tear. KCCA is currently constrained by the limited budget to turn around this situation,” the report said.

By 2022, KCCA had recorded an area of 8,500 square metres of potholes, spread across the city’s five divisions. In December 2022, work on the pot-holes started in earnest with the funding that was availed.

An April 2023 report also said KCCA faced a serious delay in the release of funding for both road development and road maintenance, explaining why they could not continue with the pot-hole repairs, even after identifying areas in need of intervention.

“We receive money for roads and drainage development and maintenance from the Government of Uganda and the Uganda Road Fund. KCCA needs anywhere between Shs75 billion to Shs100 billion annually to effectively maintain our roads and yet we get only Shs26 billion for this task,” the report indicated.

Officials from KCCA at the time said they had engaged the relevant government agencies, including the Ministry of Finance, Parliament’s committees on Infrastructure, and Presidential Affairs, but no action was taken.

Roads, streets repair mess

KCCA was doing its best within the limited resources to make the roads motorable, according to an April 2023 report. The KCCA officials said while the authority was facing challenges with budgets, the situation was not only affecting KCCA but most ministries, departments and agencies that had to scale back their activities.

“Unfortunately for KCCA, services such as road and drainage maintenance to avert the current mess are in the full view of everyone and they draw constant criticisms. Despite the foregoing, we are working tirelessly with the various budget stakeholders to ensure the current situation does not persist so everyone can enjoy smooth roads in a flood-free city,” the report said.

Currently, the city authorities have dismantled almost all the roundabouts within the city and are reconstructing them to improve traffic flow to the central business district.

But this comes with time wasted due to obstruction, diversion, and holdups from the ongoing roadworks.

Hours, days lost in jams

A 2022 parliamentary report said each Ugandan loses up to 52 working days a year due to traffic jams, which translates into 90 minutes lost daily.

Another report by KCCA said the roads in the city account for 90 percent of the modes of transport as opposed to air, rail and water.

The same report said public transport in Kampala is predominated by 14-seater taxis with a population of 17,203 and boda bodas, whose actual population is yet to be registered but in the past increased from 15,979 in 2007 to 405,124 in 2014.

With the average speed of vehicles in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area standing at 25.9 km/h due to poorly planned road networks and poor traffic management that result in traffic snarl-ups, the report said it is estimated that more than 24,000 man-hours are lost in traffic jams each year.

“The vehicle hours each year are estimated at 26,000 hours. The lost time that vehicles spend on the road give an indication of the monetary loss and pollution attributed to the congestion. Following the National Road Safety Report 2010, during “peak hours – given that half of the 375,324 vehicles registered in 2008 are in Kampala, and each uses a minimum of one litre of petrol in a traffic jam every day, at Shs5,000 per litre, this translates into losses of more than Shs1 billion per day,” the report said.

However, from the time the report was released in 2017, the number of cars and the price of fuel per litre has since increased, implying an even higher loss in terms of revenue.

Mr Daniel NuweAbine, the KCCA spokesperson, however, blamed the bad state of roads in the city on encroachers who have destroyed wetlands and other water catchment areas, resulting in floods that destroy roads.

He said encroachment on wetlands should be stopped to reduce the continued encroachment on the buffers for storm water.

Cost of fixing bad roads

Mr NuweAbine said to fully implement the Kampala Drainage Master Plan (KDMP) and road networks, the KCCA would require $200 million ( about Shs734 billion) that would significantly reduce flooding.

He expressed optimism that once the KDMP has been fully implemented, most of the flooding will be stopped.

“However, this has to be done with proper disposal of solid wastes that block some of the channels,” Mr NuweAbine said.

He said KCCA has implemented a mix of mechanisms to maintain storm water channels, including machines for larger channels and desilting teams for smaller ones.

Mr NuweAbine said KCCA was maintaining the existing channels with a mix of interventions comprising both mechanised and human efforts.

He said machines have been deployed to maintain drainage channels like Nakivubo, Lubigi, Nakamiro and Kansanga, while the desilting teams support the regular clearance of the smaller channels to ease the flow of storm water in the city.

Manhole death traps

Mr NuweAbine said KCCA was addressing the issue of manhole cover thefts by using composite covers and enhancing enforcement while also educating communities on the value of protecting city assets.

“It is members of our communities that take these manhole covers. Reports indicate that these are taken by people looking to recover the steel bars used to make the concrete manhole covers for sale,” he said.

Mr NuweAbine added: “KCCA is now moving to use composite manhole covers, which have no reuse value when stolen while undertaking robust sensitisation with our communities to protect city assets.”

Strides made

Mr Justus Akankwansa, the KCCA director for engineering and technical services, said the roadworks in the city have picked up and that the construction of drainage channels on these roads would help tackle the flooding.

“For example, 8th Street [in the Industrial area], shall have tarmac by Christmas, all the drainages have been worked on. The same applied to Sir Apollo Kaggwa Road, Sentema 1 and Port Bell Road,” he said.

Mr Akankwasa urged city dwellers to be patient. He added that given the resources, KCCA is determined to fix all the bad roads and ensure a smooth flow of traffic.

“Bear with us. When you are treating cancer, sometimes, it is not palatable, but after you have been treated you can jump and run. Expect to have a smooth ride on Kampala roads,” he said.

Mr Akankwasa also said as they construct roads, they will plant trees on sideways to enhance the beauty of the city and make it climate-smart for everyone living within the city and the surrounding suburbs.

He said under the African Development Bank project, for example, a total of 10,000 trees are expected to be planted to promote a greener city.