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 couldn’t 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 can’t 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 can’t 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 
________

http://www.idrconsulting.com

--> for your consultancy needs



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