Lukwago hits out at KCCA over special forces road project

Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago has accused the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) technical leadership of a plot to parcel Shs250b of the authority’s development budget to the Special Forces Command (SFC) to maintain and construct roads.

Mr Lukwago said the funds were recovered after a scrutiny of the inflated Kampala City Roads Rehabilitation Project.

“After forcing them to ‘cough’ this money, now they want to give it to the SFC just like that. But we shall not allow that. Let the SFC be allocated classified funds or money from any other sources but not the money out of our sweat,” Mr Lukwago told journalists at a press conference in Kampala yesterday.

His remarks followed Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the senior presidential adviser’s tour of roads that the Special Forces Command Construction Regiment (SFCCR) is maintaining in the city.

Gen Muhoozi was accompanied by the KCCA executive director, Ms Dorothy Kisaka, her deputy, Mr David Luyimbazi, and the SFC engineering teams.

However,  Mr Lukwago criticised the teams, saying they cannot maintain city roads.

“From our assessment, the SFC has no capacity to fix potholes in the city. They have no equipment, no expertise and we even do not know how many engineers they have. They are just hoodwinking Ugandans that something is happening,” he said.

“We want SFC out of Kampala, Gen Muhoozi please take your men back to the barracks because they are just doing nothing. The best they can do is to go and handle our borders with DRC, South Sudan and others which are ravaged by insecurity because that is their area of expertise,” the Lord Mayor added.

The SFCCR secured a Shs2b deal from KCCA to fix potholes in the central business district.

Army engineers led by Lt Col Robert Chabo started the works at Kiyembe Lane, Kololo and Rashid Khamis Road.

The engineers have deployed their construction equipment, including army graders, compressors and trucks.

In June, President Museveni ordered the SFC to take over the maintenance.

Mr Museveni said Gen Muhoozi had approached him to help in the construction at a very low cost.

In May, the First Son toured some of the roads and promised to use the SFC units to improve them.

Gen Muhoozi didn’t talk to the press during yesterday’s tour but in his conversation with the KCCA technical team, they told him that they needed money to establish drainage systems.

Ms Kisaka said the wastewater was destroying roads because of a lack of drainage system, but are unable to fix them due to a shortage of funds.

Gen Muhoozi promised to pass on their concerns to his supervisor to increase the funding to the KCCA.

Task ahead
Last week, Lt Kikomeko Kigongo, the assistant project manager, said they had enough equipment and personnel to do the assigned tasks.

“We also had the pleasure to have our patron Afande MK (Gen Muhoozi) tour the progress of our work. Their main focus was to look at our progress given the challenge of rain. We managed to showcase the sections that we have worked on majorly Kololo, Old Kampala, Kiyembe Lane and Wilson Road,” Lt Kikomeko said.

He said their scope of work will cover 12,000 square metres of potholes, 10,000 square metres of section repairs and some pavements, but observed that rain and heavy traffic had affected their progress .

The army engineer said drainage isn’t part of their scope but promised to maintain the channels while they do their work.

‘SFC unwelcome in city’
“We want SFC out of Kampala, Gen Muhoozi please take your men back to the barracks because they are just doing nothing. The best they can do is to go and handle our borders with DRC, South Sudan and others which are ravaged by insecurity because that is their area of expertise,” Erias Lukwago, Kampala Lord Mayor

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