By Joshua Walakira
There is unanimity that KCCA has in the last seven (7) years since inception done very well spectacularly transforming the city especially in far as the road infrastructure is concerned. To many Kampalans the spectacular roads delivered during her tenure will always be the lasting legacy of founding KCCA ED Jennifer Musisi Semakula. However, this has come at a huge financial cost to the taxpayer including more than Shs100bn the Uganda Road Fund (URF) intervention has availed to those running the city. Eng Patrick Kaweesa is KCCA’s Road Construction & Maintenance supervisor and also the contact person doing all the liaisons between the City Authority and Eng Micheal Odongo-led URF. Kaweesa says the URF financial support (now about Shs100bn since KCCA’s inception) has made tremendous difference enabling KCCA achieve much more in the roads sector than would have been achieved. Eng Kaweesa says they are grateful the URF financial grants have been gradually growing from one year to another as opposed to plummeting as more new districts get created and the resource envelope gets constrained. He says the URF grants have been used to fund a number of very critical and complimentary aspects of the road network in Kampala. It has mostly gone into routine and periodic road maintenance. Many of the street lights and well maintained traffic junctions we see as we enjoy a less traffic congested city are in place courtesy of the Road Fund grants, says Kaweesa. The URF has also occasionally bought for KCCA road equipment whose servicing they also fund. Many walk ways in the CBD, Kaweesa reveals, have been worked on and durably paved using grants from the URF. Yet that isn’t all. The desilting and draining of many would-be blocked drainage channels in the city too has routinely been carried out using funds from the URF whose timely and reliable release Eng Kaweesa says is something they are very pleased about as KCCA. Several city roads in all the five Divisions too have been graded from murram to tarmac (making them more motorable/passable) courtesy of the URF funding. In the ongoing FY2018/19 (URF gave Shs30bn), some of the roads that have benefited under the URF-funded periodic road maintenance program include Super fm road in Rubaga and National Water Road in Ntinda which is 650 meters in Nakawa Division. Others are Kayinda road (decongesting Bukoto-Kisasi/600 meters) in Nakawa Division and 2.5kms Kalungu road in Makindye Division. There are also small roads surrounding a place famously known as Gaba Mission which too have been impacted upon using the grants from URF. In the ongoing 2018/19 FY, the URF committed to give KCCA Shs30bn and Eng Kaweesa is thankful the releases are so far on course having been delivered without delay enabling KCCA to implement planned road works. “We are very certain even in the remaining quarter, the URF will release the amounts expected making it 100% performance for the whole year,” he says during the interview at his City Hall offices. Other roads impacted upon using the URF grants include 0.86km Mwedde lane and Audi road in Nsambya. Eng Kaweesa explains that minor as they may superficially seem, these road projects are extremely important because they provide alternative connectivity that is essential in decongesting and avoiding unnecessary traffic jams on the major high ways leading into and outside the city. For instance the Super fm road helps to divert would-be traffic jam on the Wakaliga major way as motorists are assured of having alternative connectivity leading to their respective destinations. The same can be said of Nakawa Division’s Kalinda road which has greatly decongested the traffic that used to mess up places leading to and from the Kabira junction in Bukoto. Motorists plying that side are grateful for the decongesting effect the grading of the National Water Road has had on cars passing through that entire neighborhood. Many of the roads on which KCCA has expended URF grants in the Nsambya neighborhood have served as diversion routes freeing up the Queens Way ahead of the Entebbe road major Fly Overs construction that, according to GoU and UNRA, will last a minimum of 2 years to be completed. This is a major works project as the President was recently on Entebbe road to give the multi-billion UNRA project the prominence it deserves. KCCA officials are grateful that URF is already contributing to that project way before the actual works even commence. Without being able to readily disclose the actual cost, Eng Kaweesi says the major walk ways (equaling between 1-2.2kms) in the CBD that have been paved using the URF grants have harnessed orderliness of travelers on all major roads in the Kampala Central Business District. “The walk ways are largely for pedestrians’ safe travelling and they have made walking on Kampala streets safer and thereby enhancing general road safety for our travelers in Kampala,” says Eng Kaweesa adding that URF has done very well with its timely releases which have enabled KCCA compliment on the benefits deriving from other road sector interventions like the one code-named “kick dust out of Kampala.” KCCA has also been able to regularly maintain and improve major road junctions in Kampala partly using URF grants.
THE EQUIPMENT
When it comes to equipment, Eng Kaweesa says URF grants have delivered for KCCA things like asphault cutters, jumper compactors and tractors to facilitate maintenance works. He recalls that the 5 maintenance tractors URF donated enabled KCCA to immediately replace the very old unusable Chinese equipment of a similar nature they had inherited from the old KCC management. Kaweesa says all this equipment support by URF was very beneficial and came at the most appropriate time when the cash-strapped management was struggling to improvise on how to have them in place-replacing the very old ones left in place by (Erias Lukwago’s predecessor) Seya Nasser Ntege Sebaggala. Eng Kaweesa says the regular meetings between URF and KCCA delegations have ensured the mutually beneficial relationship has only grown from strength to strength. He says during those meetings, areas that require clarity or even improvement are raised and remedial action is quickly taken. “We are grateful that whereas some benefiting entities have sometimes had their grants cut or not 100% released due to resource constraints, the URF management has been prudent enough to understand our unique position as KCCA and ensured that we always get the funds as budgeted,” says Eng Kaweesa. To ensure smooth operations, the URF has even recruited and designated a manager that is full time available to ensure any feedback, queries or improvement concerns raised by KCCA and other benefiting entities are urgently responded to. Indeed URF grants coming to KCCA have progressively been increasing in the last 7 years from the original/initial Shs13bn to Shs15bn, Shs16bn, Shs20bn and eventually to the current Shs30bn. And beyond such mega cash contributions, the URF has also supported KCCA work via provision of user equipment things like shoes, gloves, uniforms and other safety gear ingredients for use by the hundreds of casual laborers working on the broader road maintenance aspects. For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755.
