By John V Sserwaniko
To their credit, members of UNRA top management earlier in the week organized a stakeholder engagement meeting for elected leaders from Kampala, Wakiso, Mukono, Kayunga and Buikwe districts. UNRA (Audit) Director Moses Kasakya, who ably represented his ED Allen Kagina, said in his opening remarks that the meeting was meant to give leaders information and creating clarity among them regarding which roads are UNRA’s and other entities’ so that if there is any dissatisfaction, blame can be appropriately apportioned. There are four categories of roads, he said, including (1) District Roads, (2) Urban Roads, (3) Country Access Roads for Sub Counties and (4) National Roads (covering 20,500kms countrywide) which are UNRA’s. Of these, he said, 5,000 kms are paved/tarmacked. The other reason for the meeting, Kasakya explained, was to update the elected leaders on what UNRA has done, is doing and planning to do. “This is important to enable you hold us accountable while monitoring what’s going on,” explained Kasakya who was flanked by a big team of UNRA officials. It was explained the ED Allen Kagina and other senior management officials were absent because there had been a planned interface with Parliament which constrained their ability to attend the elected leaders’ meeting held at UNRA’s Kyambogo offices. Kasakya also revealed that the stakeholder engagement meetings, which had last been held in 2017, would cover many other areas and the Kyambogo meeting for the Greater Kampala Area leaders was just the first one as many more would be held initially in the Central region before spreading out to the rest of the country.
JOKAZ ROAD
Kasakya raised the MPs’ expectations when he disclosed the new cheaper intervention UNRA had devised aimed at covering many more roads without having to incur high expenses. He said this is called the “Low Cost Sealing” approach whose many advantages include excluding payment of Project Affected Persons (PAPs) whose compensation has (according to Lands Minister Betty Amongin) always accounted for over 70% of the overall road project cost. The UNRA boss gave examples of roads UNRA designated and planned to work on using this faster approach including the 5.8km Lweza-Kigo road which is being upgraded from murram to tamarack using UNRA’s internal capacity without having to go through complex procurement processes that quite often lead to delays. He also gave the example of the 14km Namboole-Namanve-Namiryango-Mukono (aka Jokaz) road as another road project UNRA had designated for improvement using the “Low Cost Sealing” approach. He disappointed his audience when he revealed the Jokaz road has since been put off the program on realizing the heavy traffic it carries on a daily basis (mainly commercial heavy trucks operating in the Namanve Industrial Park) isn’t appropriate for such intervention. The very disappointed MPs didn’t like this revelation and those who showed displeasure included UNRA strong ally Eng Kafeero Sekitoleko who, as Chairman Physical Infrastructure Committee of Parliament, actively participates in defending of the UNRA budget during the Amos Lugolobi-led Budget Committee meetings. As UNRA bosses pensively listened, Eng Sekitoleko said Jokaz road is very important and its betrayal for UNRA management to further prolong its upgrading. Sekitoleko, who frequently uses this Jokaz road to circumvent jam on the Jinja Highway, said he was so disappointed on learning of this alteration and had written to the Works Ministry Engineer in Chief Samson Bagonza seeking his intervention to get UNRA reverse its decision. Sekitoleko demanded that in the alternative, UNRA gives Greater Mukono area leaders chance to choose the alternative priority road on which that same money (originally meant for Jokaz road) can be expended. “As area residents frequently using that side, we badly needed that road to be worked on as it helps us decongest traffic jam on the Kampala-Jinja Highway especially between Bweyogerere and Mukono,” Sekitoleko said. He was supported by other participants including Mukono RDC Fred Bamwine who demanded that in the alternative, UNRA at least upgrades “the all-important Jokaz road to first class murram.” He said this would increase the road’s motorability and decongest traffic in the neighborhoods of Bweyogerere, Namanve, Seeta and Mukono itself. He challenged the UNRA leadership to become more pragmatic and become agreeable to what he was proposing. “For instance the Local Governments now have new road equipment but they lack logistics like fuel and allowances for the drivers yet UNRA has a lot of money. Why don’t you partner with them to fill these gaps and more roads are work
ed on and made more passable. That would be the best way because people don’t care which road is UNRA’s or is for Mukono district Local Government,” Bamwine roared attracting applause from fellow leaders present. Nansana Municipality MP the outspoken Kasule Sebunya said it was improper for UNRA to operate without being sensitive to the ruling NRM manifesto promises. He said it’s extremely important for UNRA to make roads in a manner that shows alertness and sensitivity to the political dynamics of the day “because as elected leaders we aren’t comfortable being bashed by voters simply because UNRA didn’t coordinate with another entity; all people want is to see the road in place and they don’t understand this business of that one is UNRA’s or KCCA’s.”
UNRA RESPONDS
Clearly remorseful to have disappointed his audience, Kasakya called for patience revealing that the designs for comprehensive intervention into the Jokaz road had been completed “and we shall soon be coming to you [MPs] to appropriate the money for the job.” But the MPs were disappointed Kasakya couldn’t specifically reveal how soon this would happen. He said as UNRA they are politically awake to what is key to the population but are often constrained due to the resource envelope being inadequate. He also said nobody would stop them from subjecting the Jokaz road to “Low Cost Sealing but that would be wastage of money because the road would deteriorate back to its difficult state within a very short time because of the heavy traffic there is which isn’t convenience for low cost sealing-and ironically the very public rushing us on the same would be the ones accusing us of shoddy work.” In subsequent presentations, the UNRA teams led by Kampala Station Manager Frank Rutebarika enumerated the rest of the roads in whose state UNRA will be intervening (making them better) using the “Low Cost Sealing” approach.
