KAMPALA – Kampala Capital City Authority, KCCA has decried the lack of enough funds to fix damaged roads in the city that have become almost impassable.
Dorothy Kisaka, KCCA boss noted that by December 2022, they had recorded an area of 8,500 Square meters of potholes, spread across the five divisions and work started immediately with the funding that was available.
“KCCA is currently constrained by the limited budget provisions to turn around this situation,” she said in a statement.
Although the authority admitted the wrath of the potholes including increased road user costs through frequent vehicle repairs, long travel times, high accident rates, and others, they say unless government revises the money they are given, the situation stands to soar further.
According to her, most of the roads in the city are beyond their lifespan which calls for urgent attention.
“Kampala City has a total road network of 2,100KM, of which only 30% are paved roads while the rest (70%) are unpaved or earth roads. It is worth noting that most of our paved roads have served far beyond their full lifespan of twenty years and are due for overhaul or reconstruction, which explains the high prevalence of potholes and other road damages. The situation has not been helped by the increased traffic levels on the roads which in turn causes increased wear and tear.”
This financial year, Kisaka said they faced a serious delay in the release of funding for both road development and road maintenance.
“That is the reason we could not continue with the pothole repairs, even after properly identifying areas in need of intervention.”
According to her, KCCA needs between UGX 75 to 100 Billion annually in order to be able to effectively maintain unlike UGX 26 Billion that they are given for this task.
However, she noted that the Government of Uganda with funding from the African Development Bank has embarked on the Kampala City Roads Rehabilitation Project, KCRRP, which will reconstruct forty-one roads (69km) in Kampala City.
Under Lot 1, the contractor has commenced work on Old Mubende road, near Busega Market, in Lubaga Divison.
In Makindye Division, earthworks and drainage works have commenced on Kabega Road, which connects Hanlon Road to Kirombe in Nsambya.
Under Lot 2, the contractor has commenced relocation of utilities on Old PortBell, PortBell and Spring roads.
The contractors for Lot 3 and 5 have received site possession instructions and will be on site soon now that the Consultant for the contracts’ design review and supervision is on board.
Following the ongoing social media campaign dubbed “Kampala Pothole Exhibition”, the Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa has demanded for a statement on the status of roads in Kampala.
“We have observed potholes of all designs; deep, shallow, wide, narrow, beautiful, ugly all in Kampala,” he said.
The Deputy Speaker who revealed that he had taken part in organising a similar expo in the past, said there is need to have the potholes fixed.
“It is ironic that you will find car damaging potholes on your way to Uganda Revenue Authority to sort out your taxes. One even wonders how ambulances must navigate the pothole ridden roads with patients,” he added.
Tayebwa instructed the Minister for Kampala City to present a statement to Parliament on how much money Kampala City Council Authority has received for road construction and maintenance over the past three years.
He said that the statement should highlight the roads beneficiary to the funds and the status of all the roads in Kampala.
