Fellow citizens - New Vision on June 5, 2005 curried a statistical photo
exhibition of Kampala Roads potholes. They counted every pothole on every newly
constructed and old constructed road.
When I read this article I couldnt fail to see the illogic nature of the
Afrikaans, incompetence, unseriousness, insincerity of our people, brunt liars,
and sheer foolishness of KCC.
a. As a first step to understand that KCC understand what they are talking
about potholes, I challenge what is his name by the way, yes Ssegane to come up
with a KAMPALA DETAIL ROAD MAP OF KAMPALA FULLY SPECIFYING TOPOGRAPHICAL,
GEOMORPHOLOGICAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL aspects.
b. Such maps will be in place update every quarter of year. KCC does not
even have a cartographic department Kampala City Council Uganda what an
absurdity!
c. A packed Matatu weights way above 4000 tonnes, therefore vibrations and
constant pounding on road structures is what solely destroys roads in Kampala.
d. Flyovers mbu is the solution for less than 10,000 vehicles! woo what
planning nonsense. Kampala has a population of about 20,000 vehicles a
small city in Europe of a smaller size will have about 250,000- 500,000
vehicles.
e. Many roads are badly designed therefore subject to the full force of
chemical weathering, garbage litter, water erosion on top of erratic hot
tropical climate has KCC ever launched a study to find out how to mitigate
these problems? KCC knows better!
f. Kampala today is over 10 kilometres in radius on all sides - therefore
the current transport infrastructure is not feasible in anyway to contemporary
city planning - if a kilometre of a road cost shs 250 million what is the
alternative?
g. For KCC it is TINA formation (there is no alternative) Makerere
University engineering faculty and KCC engineers taken to task to explain
potholes, stupid.
h. The British built a railway from Mombasa to Kasese why cant build a
tram system on all 900 km of Kampala city roads and how much will KCC save from
maintenance and road construction costs?
i. Why has KCC not started a district bus service lack of money or
matatu ownership?!!
j. In fact the majority of Kampala people would be cycling to work, if
there were any sort of structure in place i.e. cycling tracks on all roads. 4
wheel drive.
k. Mark you garbage litter another debacle leaching roads, can generate
electricity, income for KCC and for lighting of entire city at a very low cost
than polluting Kitezi.
l. There is what we call SPATIALITY (low technical solution) that is
localisation and population spread over a wide area this will enhance
decongestion, disorganisation, cleanliness, and of course solve all what is
called Kampala traffic/road problems.
m. Relocating all major commercial and trading activities will completely
decongest the city- move owino market to Natete, Kawempe, move trade from
Kikubo to Katwe or Kasubi move all taxis out of the city and reintroduce city
buses or trams simple no potholes.
n. Had KCC been competent enough today it will own broadband cable network
all over the city breadth, to take services into the suburbs hence pushing the
population to work outside the city.
o. Does KCC have any development fund later all on investments to fund
city development plans? LGDP stupid!
p. All what was written up does not add up but a reflection of people lost
into their own world, so arrogant to assume that every one of us is gyrating in
the same mess.
If you cant do it contact me I will help you at no cost what so ever, so long
as you pay my professional experts for their lost income, doing the job.
Me Bwanika @
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.idrconstuling.com
~~~~ ~¨¨~¨¨ ~¨~¨~¨ ~¨ ¨¨ ¨¨¨¨~¨~~¨¨¨
Monday June 20, 2005 on page 49, The City Council of Kampala Town Clerks Office
P.O. Box 7010 Kampala, Uganda Telephone 231446 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
arrogantly and what to me seems most stupid and rare breed placed a response on
half page in New Vision.
Note Half page 17.5 cm x 6 col/26cm x 4 col) New Vision New Advertisement rates
effective 1 July 2005 2,580,000 compare with old rates.
Here you go.
1. We refer to the article by Stephen Abili, which purported to portray our
city of Kampala as full of nothing but potholes.
2. Whereas we appreciate the concern expressed by Sunday vision, we still think
that your story would have made more sense if only your reporter had been
professional enough to find out from us what the problem is, if any. (!!!!!)
3. Indeed, your reporter would have found out that we are more concerned about
the potholes than any other person. Potholes have been the subject of many
discussions both by the management committee and the executive committee of the
council. During these meetings, we have taken our engineers (indeed!!!!!) to
task to explain to us what plans they have to control potholes (reread
paragraph 2)
4. Without going into too many details, we think the public is entitled to a
more balanced picture than your obviously biased story.
5. As we write this response the council has three running contracts not only
for roads repairs but also road construction amounting to shs 3.8 billion. This
information has been made available to the press, including The New Vision,
which is why we doubt the MOTIVE behind your article. In the recent past, a
number of roads have been completed in al divisions of Kampala. Some of these
are:
a). Lubiri Ring Road
b). Wankulukuku Road
c). Kisenyi Road
d). Rubaga Road
e). Kafumbe Mukasa Road etc.
6. In addition, many roads have already been patched, such as Makerere, Hill
Road, Balintuma Road, Jinja Road, Babiiha Road, etc., A complete list showing
which road, the contractor, the contractor sum, and all other details regarding
the works is available.
7. We think that these efforts should be recognised. It is therefore uncalled
for to say, As KCC takes an unending nap, potholes are making it a point to
consign vehicles to scrap yards
The Facts
8. People say the facts are bitter, but you only avoid them at your own
peril. (Wow!) The facts are that Kampala has a road network of 300 kms of
tarmac roads and 600 kms of earth/gravel roads giving a total of 900 kms It
costs on average shs. 250 million to tarmac just one kilometre of road
including the drainage. It costs a further shs. 12.5 million to maintain one
kilometre of road every year. This is just 5% of the construct cost. (WHAT IS
THE POINT NOT TO FIT POTHOLES)
9. To tarmac the 600 kilometres of road that are at present earth/gravel
would cost shs. 150 billion. To maintain the current tarmac roads would cost
shs 3.75 billion per year. If all the 900 kms were tarmac the council would
need shs 11.25 billion annually for maintenance. (THIS IS NOT TRUE SINCE THE
ALL ROADS ARE SUBSTANDARD EXCEPT WAKALIGA ROAD!, how potholes have been fixed
on Wakaliga road since it was commissioned)
10. The other facts are that a road, like human being has a lifespan.
(heeere) It could be a short as three years, or as long as 15 years. Of course,
the longer the lifespan, the higher the cost of construction. Our moderate cost
of shs 250 million per kilometre is for a lifespan of 7 years. ( HOW MANY TIMES
HAS KIBUYE NATETE ROAD BE RECONSTRUCTED IN THE PAST 7 YEARS)
11. When you think back, you will realise that virtually all the current
tarmac roads, save for a few kilometres, are expired. Their lifespan is over
and they need reconstruction, so maybe we should be talking about shs. 225
billion instead of shs 150 billion. Besides, we all know that once a road is
expired, potholes will sprout faster than one can repair them and our estimate
of shs. 12.5 million per year for maintenance becomes meaningless.
The resources
12. Usually, whenever we talk of resources, some people, without any facts
whatsoever, jump to the conclusion that You City Council you have a lot of
money. Whereas this is an appealing populist statement, it is misleading.
13. It is no secret, and we are proud, that we have raised our local
revenue from shs 14.5 million in 1997/8 to shs 21.5 billion in 2003/4. This may
sound a lot, but considering all the other priority demands on this income, we
are only able to provide shs. 2 billion for road construction and repair. Other
priority areas include street lighting, solid waste management, (WASTE CAN BE
USED TO GENERATE POWER FOR THE CITY HENCE REDUCE STREET LIGHTING COST) public
health, community services, education, administration (including salaries and
allowances), physical planning (wow!!!), law enforcement, utilities (Nakivubo,
Toilets, New /Old Taxi Park, Wankulukuku stadium) and other statutory payments,
etc. (WHERE IS UTODA MONEY)
14. Clearly, these resources are totally inadequate and we all start taking
our tax obligations seriously, we are likely to have even bigger problems than
we already do.
15. Nevertheless, we as Kampala City Council are grateful to the Government
and the donor community who have joined hands with us to make the lives of the
residents of Kampala less uncomfortable by also devoting substantial additional
resources to maintain our old roads and indeed expand the road network. If only
we would remember where we have come from.
16. To make matters worse, and which is really unfortunate, numerous
taxpayers prefer being coerced to pay their taxes. Many times we have ha to
publish hundreds of them in the press, and later on take them to court just to
make them pay their taxes. Even then, where court has dully ruled, some forces
have interfered with enforcement. As a result, arrears for property rates for
example have grown to shs 30 billion. This kind of money would do a lot of
infrastructure improvement.
Way forward
17. From the foregoing, it is evident that unless some new friendly
sources of revenue are approved for the council, there is no way we are going
to get rid of potholes or provide adequate services to the residents of
Kampala, the nation at large and all our visitors despite efforts made so far.
18. We are in discussion with the Central Government over the matter and we
hope that our discussions will be successful for the provision of better
services.
JAMES K.N. SSEGANNE
TOWN CLERK
Bwanika
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