David Luyimbazi, Deputy Executive Director of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), has said that it will take the Authority 32 years to eliminate the potholes in Kampala if the government maintains the current rate of funds allocated for road construction in the city.
Luyimbazi made the remarks while appearing before the Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises (COSASE), where MPs wondered why KCCA is comfortable with Kampala being known as the “merchants of potholes” in the world. The MPs say that potholes have become the new identity of KCCA.
Eddie Kwizera (Bukimbiri County) said, “When I drive around Kampala, the way I know this is under Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) is by hitting a pothole, that is their identity. Would they want to be identified with potholes? That is a very big issue because they have very competent departments, a competent Council, a competent Executive Director, and Ministers. But why should it be that we remember KCCA exists only when we hit potholes?”
In response, Luyimbazi said that the Authority receives inadequate funds for road construction.
“We have been getting a budget of about Shs64 billion to Shs70 billion every financial year for the past three years. Now, with the unit cost of construction being Shs6-Shs7 billion per kilometer, that allows us to construct about 10 kilometers each year,” Luyimbazi said.
He explained to MPs that KCCA has a network of about 2100 kilometers, of which 650 kilometers are paved. Of the paved roads, about 60% have outlived their design life, which means that about 320 kilometers need to be reconstructed.
“Now, if we have 320 kilometers that need to be reconstructed, we need 32 years to fix those roads with the money we get. So when you ask us to eliminate the potholes, and you don’t consider the financing we have, and we can only progress at 10 kilometers every year, you can understand the dilemma we are in,” he said.
