Andrew Nkurunziza
19 June 2008
column
CHOGM is still so fresh in many people's minds not only because of its gravity and milestone nature but also the rigorous facelift that the city was subjected to, to the extent of work being done at night.
Now seven months down the road, we look at the impact of the CHOGM hosting. Although it was to last less than two years the layer put on the roads like Kampala Road and others leading to the major hotels around town at relieved the city of potholes and traffic jam. Entebbe Road became safer due to the revamp it underwent.
Our tourism industry benefited extraordinarily with the set up of new hotels and renovation of the existing hotels. It's during this period that five star hotels came up. This development still is boosting the tourism sector with up-class accommodation. The police got an advantage since its transport sector was really boosted with new cars which were meant to boost the delegates' security.
Up to now these cars still are serving and helping so much in crime prevention and control. We now have a state of the art airport which is up to international aviation standards. Entebbe Airport can now handle more air traffic which is almost twice as much as it used to. Kampala suburbs and neighbourhoods were made safe with the constant patrols by security personnel. That's the time the now infamous SPCs came into the limelight.
But now the neighborhoods that used to boast of being safe are riddled with murders and robberies like in Kiwatule and Najjera. For once in a long time vehicular traffic was regulated with the installation of traffic lights such as around Clock Tower, former Jinja Road roundabout all served to decongest the city.
What's on the ground seven months after CHOGM serves to show how dire our country's situation is; traffic lights have long died due to failure by the authorities to repair them. On the other hand they claim the power bills are simply exorbitant for them to pay. This has left the traffic flow in shambles.
The once vigilant patrols around the city suburbs have ceased, fuelling crime rate. The SPCs have turned notorious because of their trigger happy nature and inadequate training.
Some of the roads repaired under the CHOGM programme are sliding back to rot and potholes on city roads are once again staring at us less than a year after repairs. The hotels built during CHOGM are almost closing shop due to shortage of clients.
The few clients available have been taken away by the more established hotels. Proprietors of the closing hotels who mostly used loans must be developing rumbling stomachs over the loanservicing. The repainted buildings are now peeling off again with many fading in colour.
Kampala is going back to its former self. Luckily enough not all hope is lost meaning that there is a ray of hope; police should resume the patrols they had begun to improve on the security in the city.
Now that the running of the city is going to be put under the central government, may be there will be a positive change in traffic lights, roads, garbage collection, drainage channels etc.
With the 1.1 trillion shillings of budget focusing on infrastructure and roads specifically, we can just hope that roads will be repaired and potholes will become a thing of the past.
How I wish everyday would be CHOGM day.
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