People stand near the wreckage of a fuel tanker that overturned and burst into flames at Kigogwa town on Kampala-Bombo road. PHOTO/ ABUBAKER LUBOWA
Residents at Kigogwa Trading Centre yesterday blamed the deadly road crashes in their area on government failure to install road humps.
The residents, including traders, landlords, hawkers and motorists, told this publication yesterday that the trading centre has become a black spot for road crashes because the government has failed to listen to their pleas.
A northbound tanker on Tuesday overturned at the trading centre before bursting into flames that engulfed the area, destroying several shops, including hardware, stationery, salons, and eateries, worth millions of shillings. The police yesterday said the death toll from the inferno had risen to 15, with 24 other people fighting for their lives in hospitals and clinics.
Kigogwa, a modest trading centre, lies some 25.5 kilometres away on the Kampala-Gulu highway. Mr Joseph Ssenkumba, the chairperson of Kigogwa Village, said their pleas for road safety measures have been ignored for over three years.
“I even wrote to the Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) expressinging need for road signs but they are yet to respond,” said Mr Joseph Ssenkumba, the Kigogwa Village chairperson.
Ms Sawiya Nassozi, a landlord whose house was gutted, killing three people, including a mother of two and a retailer, said she was forced to shift her family to the village in Luweero because of the increased accidents in the area.
“I stayed here for three years but vehicles hit my house three times, killing people and this prompted me to go back to the village and rent of this house, which has now been destroyed beyond repair,” she said. Residents also shared that they once stopped President Museveni as he passed through the area and informed him about the accidents.
"The President simply told us that it is possible to put humps here but we don't know why it hasn’t been done, yet our people are dying in reckless accidents due to speeding vehicles," one of the affected residents said.
Ms Justine Mbabazi, the Wakiso Resident District Commissioner, visited the scene and promised to raise the issue with the Ministry of Works. Ms Mbabazi said: “I’m going to immediately take this up with the Ministry of Works and ensure that this is done soon.”
BACKGROUND
In 2015, the Deputy Secretary General of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), Ms Rosemary Namayanja, almost lost her life when her car got involved in a head-on collision with a truck. Ms Namayanja was travelling in her official vehicle from Kampala to Nakaseke.
