Potholes: Parliament summons Kampala Minister

The battle over the Kampala potholes found its way to the Ugandan Parliament with the Deputy Speaker, Mr Thomas Tayebwa, directing the Ministry of Kampala Capital City and Metropolitan Affairs to present a statement on the funding for construction and maintenance of roads for the past three years and the status of roads in the city.
Mr Tayebwa who chaired the plenary on Tuesday afternoon said the Kampala potholes have become a crisis which needs urgent attention.
"Social media, especially Twitter, is awash with an exhibition of potholes in Kampala. We have potholes of every design, and size, deep, shallow, wide, narrow, filled with water, and dry ones, they are all in Kampala," he told MPs.
"Imagine you are from URA, from sorting your tax issues and then passing in potholes and breaking your shock absorbers, and then ask yourself why? I ask myself how ambulances navigate these roads, especially with pregnant women," he said.
Ugandans on Monday took to Twitter to share the different pothole sites in the city under the hashtag #Kampalapotholeexhibition, initiated by Mr Spire Jim Ssentongo, a renowned cartoonist and writer. Different photos and videos of potholes on the city roads have since made rounds.
"Hon Linos [Ngompek] came and talked to me that some men are no longer functioning well because their backs are broken because of potholes. Mama Cecilia [Ogwal] told me women are producing prematurely because of potholes," Tayebwa said.He directed the Minister for Kampala to present a statement to Parliament to see whether "the problem is from us, or we don't appropriate enough money."
KCCA responds to the exhibition
Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) yesterday issued a statement and blamed the poor state of roads on inadequate funding.
 “KCCA makes plans to fix damaged roads based on available resources or budgets, the primary source being the Uganda Road Fund. We cannot trivialise the issue of potholes on our roads. KCCA is aware that potholes drive up road user costs through frequent vehicle repairs, long travel times, high accident rates, and others,” Ms Dorothy Kisaka, the Executive Director of KCCA, said.
With a total road network of 2,100km, only 30 percent are paved.
Ms Kisaka said many of the paved roads have served far beyond their lifespan of 20 years.
“The situation has not been helped by the increased traffic levels on the roads which in turn cause increased wear and tear. KCCA is currently constrained by the limited budget provisions to turn around this situation,” she said.
Data presented by the authority indicates that by December 2022, KCCA had recorded an area of 8,500 Square meters of potholes, spread across the five divisions.
Ms Kisaka said they started road repairs in December 2022.
 “That is the reason we could not continue with the pothole repairs, even after properly identifying areas in need of intervention. We receive money for roads and drainage development and maintenance from the Government of Uganda and from Uganda Road Fund. KCCA needs anywhere between Shs75b to Shs100 billion annually in order to be able to effectively maintain our roads and yet we get only Shs26 billion for this task,” she said.
Way forward
Ms Kisaka said the authority has taken its cries to Parliament and the Finance ministry, but with little success.
“…we are going to use part of this budget [last quarter] to fix the sections that fit within the funds received. We expect that this, combined with the release from the Uganda Road Fund will be able to turn around the outlook of the blackspots,” she said.
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