President Museveni has directed the Special Forces Command to help Kampala Capital City Authority in fixing potholes in the city roads.
" This is to direct you to cause the relevant agencies of government to allow KCCA to directly work with the SFC Construction Regiment to repair the famous potholes in Kampala City," Museveni said in a May, 22 letter to the Prime Minister, Robinah Nabbanja.
The president directed the Prime Minister to ensure his directive is implemented without delay .
"The SFC construction regiment will do the work at a cost that is much lower than what the profit-seeking contractors would have done."
To this, the Prime Minister has today met with the KCCA Executive Director, Dorothy Kisaka, UNRA Executive Director, Allen Kagina and the Uganda Road Fund Executive Director ,Dr. Andrew Naimanye as well as the Kampala Minister, Works Minister and Attorney General representatives at her office.
SFC speaks out
Contacted for a comment on the matter, the SFC spokesperson, Maj Jimmy Omara said they are ready for the task.
"Right now we are not going to construct new roads, we shall only rehabilitate the existing roads that are in bad shape . We have the requisite equipment and manpower for the task," Maj Omara said.
He said right now, a Memorandum of Understanding is set to be formulated on how they will work with KCCA on the city road repairs, adding that they will be waiting for funds to kick start the works.
"Our engineers anticipate that when the required funds are availed, within 2 to 3 months, all these roads will have been worked on.The works will be done by the Special Forces Command Engineering Regiment."
KCCA spokesperson, Simon Kasyate welcomed SFC's efforts in supporting them to fix the problem of potholes in the city.
"The Special Forces Command is very welcome. What Kampala needs is service delivery, including and not limited to eradicating potholes. We are one government and agencies can support one another. The current budget isn't sufficient to do all the work anyway. Over 1500km of Kampala's roads are unpaved and they need maintenance. We have major sectional repairs, over potholed roads which need scrapping and overhauled. So we look forward to the support,"Kasyate said.
Pothole menace
In April, Ugandans took to social media to protest against the state of Kampala roads.
In what was named as the Kampala pothole exhibition, Ugandans posted on several social media platforms 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.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Many have since blasted KCCA and the entire government for turning a blind eye to the deplorable situation of roads in the city.
In emergency press briefing on Tuesday, KCCA Executive Director, Dorothy Kisaka said they don't have funds to fill the potholes.
"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."
A few days later, President Museveni directed the Ministry of Finance to release shs6 billion to cater for Kampala road repairs.
"I now direct the Ministry of Finance to urgently release the quarterly contribution to KCCA of shs6 billion for pothole filling, repairs and maintenance of roads," Museveni directed.
Only 30% of Kampala's total road network of 2,100KM is paved.
