Salome Alweny
28 July 2007
opinion
Kampala — WITH its potholed and unlit streets, rarely collected garbage, dust, and traffic jams set off mostly by drivers who leave you asking questions about their mental state, Kampala is not a city to write home about - let alone live in.
The chaos that is Kampala truly boggles the mind. How did it come to be? It is all about planning. Or the lack of it. "The problem of Kampala dates from long time ago - since the 1970s," says Local Government Minister Kahinda Otafiire.
"It is over 30 years now. That is why I'm having problems because we are trying to undo what has been going wrong for over three decades. Look at Nakasero Market [in the city centre]. It is dirty."
Nakasero Market is in the news over its privatisation by KCC, a move that has turned controversial drawing in State House, the Ministry of Local Government, city businessman Hassan Bassajjabalaba and stall owners.
Covering an area of 201 square kilometres, 80 percent of Kampala has not developed according to structural plans, a city council report says. The result, partly, is the growth of slums which are now home to nearly 40 percent of Kampalans.
"About 20 percent of the city is planned and the majority of planned areas include Nakasero, Kololo, Ntinda, Bugolobi, Naguru, parts of Luzira and Old Kampala," notes a report by KCC's economic planning unit.
According to the report, which is part of the Kampala District Development Plan 2006/07-2008/09, some areas of the city are planned but the plans are not properly followed or enforced. These areas include Buziga, Lukuli, Kikassya, Kiwatule, and Mutundwe. "Enforcement of the plans has been limited by the existing land tenure system and compensation failure," the report says.
And Minister Otafiire agrees. "We have a problem of land ownership in Kampala," he said in a recent interview with Daily Monitor. "You are talking about a lot of things you want to do but then it is all about who owns land.
It is privately owned but even that land where you have no control, you have the responsibility of planning. If it is not publicly owned and it is not owned by city council, then all sorts of unplanned developments are taking place."
The Kampala Structural Plan of 1994 was supposed to help sort things out but for reasons of lack of adequate funding, sheer incompetence, and corruption, nothing has come of it.
That plan, for example, emphasises protection and enhancement of natural vegetation within this hilly city to improve the quality and integrity of air, water, and land.
But uncontrolled development has left natural vegetation, which was basically forests and swamps, destroyed by being replaced with residential, commercial and industrial buildings.
Some of the green spaces gone to waste include Centenary Park, which is being turned into a concrete jungle yet it was intended to be a modern leisure park. The Children's Park in Wandegeya is now a market, and the arboretum in Bugolobi is no more. An arboretum is a "place where an extensive variety of woody plants are cultivated for scientific, educational, and ornamental purposes".
This has had a grave impact on the once rich vegetation and diversity of birds, plants and animals and hence loss of possible tourist attractions within the city.
Also, the air quality is constantly getting worse as a result of fumes from industries and second-hand cars, whose number is rising fast alongside a reasonably decent economy.
Wind that raises dust would be broken by trees but because most of the trees have been felled and not replaced fast enough, the city feels and looks dusty all the time.
The 1994 plan further talks about conducting urban agriculture and forestry activities in appropriate locations. Some of those activities are indeed taking place - but in wetlands.
This has left Lake Victoria vulnerable to pollution from effluent. All these un-coordinated activities are also exposing Kampala to the danger of increased flooding because rainwater can hardly seep into the ground.
With a population growth rate of 3.9 percent per annum - more than the national rate of 3.3 percent - Kampala is growing at a rate faster than KCC's capacity to adequately plan, implement plans, and provide infrastructure and social services.
This is because it is largeyly underfunded. KCC's budget this year is Shs57.4 billion although it would need four times that amount operate optimally.
Kampala is a radial city - meaning that it has expanded outward from its historic centre of Old Kampala along the major roads leading to Jinja, Entebbe, Masaka and Luwero.
Kampala's origin dates back some 200 years ago when the first Buganda settlement was established on a number of the present city's hilltops. But a relatively sophisticated "urban settlement, the Kibuga" or city was already in place when the colonial settlement called Kampala was established in 1890.
Serious efforts to make Kampala a modern city began in 1912 but covering only the areas of Nakasero and Old Kampala hills, two of the original seven hills making up the "old" city. The other hills are Kibuli, Namirembe, Rubaga, Makerere, and Kololo.
Another plan was drawn up in 1930 stressing zoning where residential, commercial, and industrial areas were developed separately.
The plans prepared before 1972, however, focussed more on the well-being of Europeans and Asians. It is the 1972 plan that tried to focus on all the people of Kampala. But as the Amin regime descended into macabre dictatorship, that plan was never carried out. Basically, planning died with the birth of the Amin dictatorship and now the city is reaping the whirlwind.
"Presently, in places like Nakivubo, Kisenyi, if KCC had planned properly and insisted on those developments," says Minister Otafiire, "the developments would be slow but it would be according to plan and the owner of that land would know."
What to do?
It appears the government and KCC are waking up to the enormity of the problem. They realise that if the Ugandan economy is to continue to function, then they must sort out Kampala, where about 80 percent of economic activity occurs.
Accordingly, the government is now seeking $37.1 million to fix the drainage system, manage traffic, maintain and upgrade roads, manage solid waste, and develop urban markets infrastructure, The EastAfrican reported three weeks ago.
The Kampala Institutional and Infrastructure Development Project says that about 90 percent of the money will come from the World Bank.
Knowledgeable sources say the plan will fit into the government's imminent take-over of the running of the city.
"We are enacting a law that will enable the central government to take over management of the city from Kampala City Council," said Minister Otafiire in the Monitor interview. "The Constitution demands us to take over the management of Kampala City Council."
The draft law is before Cabinet before it goes to Parliament for debate and possible enactment. Meanwhile, KCC together with line ministries, lead agencies, and donors are working on a decongestion strategy where various parts of Kampala will be developed into semi-cities with services moved there to relieve the city centre.
The Nakawa-Naguru sub-centre development into a semi-city is going on. The sub-centre will service Nakawa Division. According to Mr Katebalirwe, Naguru will become a commercial area and Nakawa will remain residential.
Other areas to be developed into semi-cities are Bwaise sub-centre, which will serve Kawempe Division; Natete sub-centre for Rubaga Division; and Kibuye sub-centre for Makindye Division.
A slum improvement and urban community development venture is also underway at a cost of Shs15 billion. Katwe I, Kisenyi II, and Bwaise III slums are the first beneficiaries.
Some 12 kilometres of access roads will be built, drainage channels dug, water mains laid, sanitation facilities established, water stand posts erected, and 16,000 trees planted.
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