President Yoweri Museveni has given a directive to the Ministry of Finance to immediately release at least shs 6 to fix Kampala potholes.
The President gave the order on Wednesday while at State House in Entebbe. He explained that despite funds being available under the African Development Bank for road construction on 30 percent of roads, others remain in an ugly state.
“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, I have been told that only 30 percent of this money has been released this financial year causing the roads outside the AFDB to fall into bad disrepair, with attendant problems of traffic jam,” Museveni said.
He tasked the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Executive Director Dorothy Kisaka to give monthly updates on the state of roads.
“I task the Kampala executive director and her team to give the country an account on the progress of this matter. Kampala Capital City Authority should give monthly updates on the cleanup, repair and maintenance of the roads in the city,” Museveni said.
On Tuesday, this week, Kisaka, released a statement on the State of roads saying they require between Shs70 billion and Shs100 billion annually to fix roads that have outlived their lifespan, lasting between 30 to 40 years.
She explained that the government has only allocated Shs 26 billion for roads countrywide.
“KCCA needs anywhere between Shs 75b and Shs 100b annually to effectively maintain roads and yet we get only Shs26b for this task. We have engaged the relevant government agencies, that is, the Ministry of Finance, and the committees of Parliament for Infrastructure and Presidential Affairs. We have met the parliamentary committees to raise awareness of the problem of “dead roads” for a lack of better words.” Kisaka said
Adding that: “This financial year, KCCA faced a serious delay in the release of funding for both road development and maintenance. That is the reason we could not continue with the pothole repairs, even after properly identifying areas in need of intervention,”
On Tuesday, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa asked the Ministry of Kampala to present a statement on the floor of Parliament about the state of roads in the city.
“Hon Minister for Kampala, I need you here on Tuesday to bring a statement, explaining how much money KCCA has received for road construction and maintenance for the last three years…,” he said.
This development followed thousands of tweets sent on social media with pictures of pot holed roads in the City.