KCCA Executive Director has defended herself over the state of affairs in the country's capital, saying they don't have funds to fix potholes that have eaten up Kampala.
"Kampala Capital City Authority routinely monitors and collects data on the state of the City roads through what we call Road Condition Surveys. KCCA makes plans to fix damaged roads based on available resources or budgets, the primary source being the Uganda Road Fund. We receive money for roads and drainage development and maintenance from the government of Uganda and from Uganda Road Fund. KCCA needs anywhere between shs75 - 100 billion annually in order to be able to effectively maintain our roads and yet we get only shs26 billion for this task,"Kisaka said.
"KCCA is facing challenges with budgets. This situation is not only affecting KCCA but most ministries, departments and agencies which too have had to scale back their activities. Unfortunately for KCCA, the services we are supposed to provide such as road and drainage maintenance to avert the current situation of poor roads and flooding are in the full view of everyone hence the constant frontline criticism."
"Poor countries are poor because those who have power make choices that create poverty. They get it wrong not by mistake or ignorance but on purpose."~ Daron Acemoğlu, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty#KampalaPotholeExhibition pic.twitter.com/LO0wdYxT7Q-- Silver Kayondo (@SilverKayondo) April 17, 2023
The KCCA Executive Director was on Tuesday addressing an emergency press briefing reacting to an ongoing campaign by Ugandans against potholes in the country's capital.
The campaign currently ongoing on social media has seen Ugandans take photos and videos of roads with potholes and post them online as a way of reminding KCCA about the deplorable state of the city's infrastructure.
Many have since blasted KCCA and the entire government for turning a blind eye to the deplorable situation of roads in the city.
Speaking in response to the campaign, the KCCA Executive Director said it makes no sense trivializing the issue of potholes on Kampala roads but noted they have been left with no option due to absence of funds to fix the mess.
"KCCA is aware that potholes drive up road user costs through frequent vehicle repairs, long travel times, high accident rates, and others 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. KCCA is currently constrained by the limited budget provisions to turn around this situation."
Ongoing repairs?
The KCCA Executive Director said by December last year, they had recorded an area of 8,500 square meters of potholes, spread across the five divisions.
"In December 2022, work on the potholes started in earnest with the funding that was available. KCCA covered potholes on several roads across the five divisions," she said.
This financial year, KCCA 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."
However, whereas Kisaka told journalists of the ongoing repairs and mentioned roads where these works to fix potholes have commenced, results on the ground show that the solution has been only temporary.
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We were promised Road repairs only to find a truck around Naguru with soil, @KCCAUG was filling a few of the potholes and with this rain I am sure the soil is already washed away! #KampalaPotholeExbition pic.twitter.com/U8oladOtkA-- Tumushabe Sharon (@SharonTumushabe) April 17, 2023
For example, in many areas, the potholes were dug, widened and abandoned without being worked up whereas in other instances, the KCCA staff only poured soil in the potholes which is eventually washed away by rains or leads to raising of dust during the dry season.
This state of affairs can easily be witnessed along Lubaga road and Kyaggwe road among others that Kisaka claimed to had repairs to fix potholes.
The KCCA Executive Director, however mentioned several roads in the city which she described as being "in pristine condition, without a pothole."
