Prime
Tracing Uganda’s tarmac: North, East share 34% of the tarmac roads
Part of the Vurra-Arua-Koboko-Oraba road that has been constructed by CICO. PHOTO BY FELIX WAROM OKELLO.
What you need to know:
- According to the ruling NRM’s 2016-2021 manifesto, the number of tarmac roads in Uganda had risen from less than 1500 kilometres in 1986 to 4000 kilometres by 2005.
- It is now emerging that despite the fact that many new road projects have been started in both the north and the east, they still have the smallest amounts of tarmac roads despite being the biggest two regions of the country.
Information obtained from both UNRA and district engineering departments across the country has revealed that the north and the East, which have a combined total of 124,870.5 square kilometres, slightly more than half of the country’s 241,551 square kilometre only have 1,441.92 kilometres out of the 4,297.92 available nationwide. That represents about 33.54 percent of the roads.
The rest of the 2,856kms of tarmac is shared out between central and western regions, which have a combined size of 116,680.5 square miles. Their share represents 66.46 percent of the roads.
A further break down indicates that Northern Uganda despite being the biggest of the four regions of the country, with a size of 81,854.1 square kilometres and a population of at least 7,148,139 people has only 639 kilometres of tarmac. That represents 14.9 percent of the total number of kilometres of tarmac nationwide.
Figures obtained from both UNRA and district engineering departments in the region revealed that 172kms are located in Acholi sub region, 214kms in Lango sub region and 253kms in west Nile.
Some of the tarmac roads in Acholi sub-region include the Gulu-Atiak road (74kms), Atiak-Nimule (35kms), Gulu-Kamdini (63kms) and the Lira-Kamdini road (70kms), which it shares with Lango sub region.
Those in Lango sub region are Lira-Abalang on the border with Kaberamaido (Teso) sub-region (48kms) and Lira-Bobi on the border with Acholi Sub region’s Omoro District (96kms).
Nebbi Pakwach (53kms), Nebbi Arua (76kms), Arua Oraba (92kms) and Arua Maracha (32kms) constitute the 253kms of tarmac in West Nile region.
With a total of 802.92 kilometres, Eastern region which has an area size of 43,016.4 square kilometres has 163.92kms more than Northern Uganda. Eastern Uganda’s share represents 18.7 percent of available tarmac nationwide.
The East’s tarmac can be found in the Jinja-Kamuli highway (62.5km), Jinja-Iganga (35km), Iganga Kaliro (34.7km), Busitema-Busia (21kms), and Nakalama-Mbale via Tirinyi (101)kms) and Namunsi-Sironko-Kapchorwa (101kms).
Others are the Mbale-Kumi-Soroti (101kms), Mbale-Tororo-Malaba road junction (49.42kms), Jinja-Malaba (141kms), Moroto-Nakapiripirit (93.3kms), Soroti-Kaberamaido on the boundary with Lango region (63.2kms).
Despite being 20,450.9 square kilometres smaller than Northern region, Central region which has an area size of 61,403.2 square kilometres and a population of 9,529,227 people has 1,370kms of tarmac, which represents a share of 33 percent of available tarmac.
Some of the roads in central region include Kampala-Masaka (127km), Kawempe-Kafu (166kms), Kampala-Jinja (86kms), Gayaza-Zirobwe (33kms) and Matugga-Kapeka (42kilometres).
With an area size of 55,276.6 square kilometres, Western Uganda is the smallest region in the country, but it has the biggest share of tarmac roads in the country with a total mileage of 1,486kms, which represents 33.4 percent of available tarmac nationwide.
Some of the roads in western Uganda include the Mbarara-Ishaka-Bwizibwera road (83kms), Fort Portal-Bundibugyo-Lamia (104kms), Kabale-Kisoro-Bunagana (101kms) and Nyakahita-Kazo road (68kms).
Reactions
Busongora North MP, Mr Nzonghu William, (FDC), who is also the Shadow minister for Works and Transport, says that failure by government to address the inequitable distribution of roads infrastructure is deliberate.
“It is not by mistake that some regions have more than others. Whereas local governments may send in their requests based on sound arguments, the decisions are made by Ministerial Departments and Agencies (MDAs) headed and dominated by people from particular regions. That is why their regions are benefiting more,” Mr Nzoghu argues.
The legislator is quick to argue that well as western Uganda is the smallest region of the country it has more Kilometres of tarmac centred in mostly Ankole and Kigezi regions because the top brass of UNRA are from the west, a charge that UNRA’s Director for communications, Mr Mark Ssali, is quick to dismiss.
“The decisions on which projects to implement or give priority are made by other so many other stakeholders elsewhere. UNRA is simply an implementing agency,” he told Daily Monitor on phone.
Mr Allan Ssempebwa Kyobe, who is the Manager Media Relations in the office of the Executive Director of UNRA, Mr Allan Ssempebwa Kyobe, had echoed similar sentiments in an earlier email that he had sent to Daily Monitor.
“The decisions are made by government, which represents the people in many aspects, to ensure that the programmes are responsive to the national economic development plans. The Minister of Works and Transport oversees this social political aspiration on behalf of government,” he wrote.
The Minister for Information and National Guidance, Mr Frank Tumwebaze, was equally quick to dismiss talk of inequitable distribution of roads and other social services.
It was however not possible to establish how decisions on which roads to be fixed and at what point in time are reached as the spokesperson of the Ministry of Works, Ms Sarah Kataike, neither picked calls to her known mobile number nor responded to whatsapp messages.
Daily Monitor has however since established that previously such decisions would be made at roundtable conferences attended by officials from the Ministries of Works and Finance and UNRA, but that no roundtable meeting has been held since 2012.
Oil and agriculture factors
Nevertheless, this has established that following developments in the Albertine Graben, priority is now being given to regions which are rich in petroleum products and those engaged in massive agricultural production.
This according to the sources, explains why government was quick to authorize the construction of the92km Hoima-Kaiso-Tonya road, and others like Mbarara-Ishaka-Bwizibwera Road (83kms), the Fort Portal-Bundibugyo-Lamia road (104kms), Kabale-Kisoro- Bunagana road (101kms), and the Nyakahita-Kazo Road (68kms), and the Kazo-Kamwengye Road (75kms).
That argument however does not add up given that commercially viable deposits of oil were discovered in Nwoya in Northern Uganda.
If agriculture is one of the two drivers of decisions on roads to be fixed then it seems it is not coming into play in Northern Uganda where roads have not been worked on despite the fact that the region has since the end of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency emerged as one of the biggest producers of maize, rice, groundnuts and sunflower. The region is also making inroads into the sugar production.
Similarly a 2011 survey by the Uganda department of geological survey and mines at the Ministry of Energy established that Karamoja sub region is very rich in minerals including limestone, uranium, marble, graphite, gypsum, iron, wolfram, nickel, copper, cobalt, lithium and tin, but it has no tarmacked roads worth writing home about.
Historical aspect
It should however be noted that infrastructural developments have not necessarily been influenced by where leaders came from.
The regimes of Apollo Milton Obote and Idi Amin and the colonial administrators before them worked on, among others the Kampala-Kabale highway in the west, Kampala-Mityana, Kampala-Busunju, Mukono-Kayunga-Njeru loop and Kampala-Jinja in Central region; Jinja-Malaba/Busia and Tororo-Soroti in the East, which created a total of 1,200 roads which the ruling NRM found in 1986.
It was ironically under the NRM that Dr Obote’s home region, Lango, has got its tarmac roads.
The NRM has expanded the tarmac road network to above the 4,200kilometre mark with roads such as the Soroti-Dokolo-Lira highway and the Arua-Oraba-Vurra road and also extended roads like the Kampala-Mityana to reach Fort Portal and the Kampala Busunju to reach Hoima.
In the NRM’s 2016-2021 manifesto, President Museveni commits himself to upgrading more roads.
“In the next five years 2,000km of new roads will be constructed. This will increase tarmac roads from 4,000km to 6,000km. This period will also witness a reconstruction or rehabilitation of sections of national roads and turning specific sections into dual carriages,” the manifesto reads in parts.
Some of the roads which have been earmarked for working on eastern Uganda include Moroto-Kotido (101km), Namagumba-Budadiri-Nalugugu (30km), Kamuli-Bukungu (64km), Kamuli-Namwendwa-Kaliro, Jinja-Buwenda-Mbulamuti (80km), Kotido-Kaabong (64km), Angatun-Lokapel (47km), Katine-Kalaki-Lwala-Kaberamaido-Ocero (50km). This should add at least 436kms to the tarmac in eastern Uganda.
Those lined up for working on in the north include Nebbi-Golli (14.4km), Ocoko-Inde (32.8km), Atiak-Moyo-Afoji (104km), Kitgum-Koputh (165km), Atiak-Kitgum (108km), Pajule-Pader (18km), which should add 442.2kms on the tarmac network in northern sub region.
Kyegegwa-Kazo-Buremba-Bisozi-Rwamwanja (87km), Kashozi-Buremba-Kariro (53km), and Kashwa-Kashongi-Ruhumba (33km) are some of the roads that have been lined up for upgrading in the west which should add at least 173kms of tarmac.
In central region the proposal is to work on Nakawuka-Kasanje-Mpigi (20km), Kisubi-Nakawuka-Nateete (27km), Nakawuka-Mawugulu-Nanziga-Maya (15km), Buwaya-Kasanje-Mpigi and Kibibi-Mityana (90km), Kayunga-Bbaale-Galiraya (88.5km), Luwero-Kiwoko-Butalangu (29km), Najjanankumbi-Busabala and Mukono-Seeta-Namboole (30km) and Mityana-Kanoni (37.2km), which should add another 336.7kms.
Ongoing road works
In the meantime 17 major roads are currently being upgraded from gravel to tarmac, which will add a total of 1178.1kms to the tarmac roads’ network. This will add another 269.4km to the existing 639km giving the region a total of 908.4km when the work is finally completed. A total of 197.3kms are to be added to the 809.92kms in Eastern Uganda, which will give the region a total of 1000.22kms. Central region will as a result of those works get an additional 364.5kms, which will ultimately give the region a total of 1734.5kms. Western region is to get an additional 348.3km, which will bring the total amount of kilometers in the region to 1834.3kms. Despite the fact that it will be receiving 72.1km more than Eastern Uganda, Northern Uganda will still have the smallest number of kilometers of tarmac followed by Eastern Uganda. While Central region will be getting the highest number of kilometers of tarmac from the ongoing works, the Western which will be receiving 16.2km less than what Central is receiving will still have the highest number of kilometers of tarmac.
NORTHERN UGANDA
Atiak-Nimule (35kms)
Olwiyo-Gulu (70.3kms)
Gulu-Acholibur (77.7kms)
Acholibur-Kitgum-Musingo (86.4kms)
EASTERN
Moroto-Nakapiripirit (93.3kms)
Musita-Lumino-Busia/Majanji (104kms)
WESTERN
Ishaka-Kagamba (35.4kms)
Fort Portal-Kamwenge (66kms)
Ntungamo-Mirama Hills (37kms)
Bulima – Kabwoya (66kms)
Kyenjojo – Kabwoya (100kms)
Kibaale-Kagadi (42.5kms)
CENTRAL
Mukono-Kyetume-Katosi/Nyenga (74kms)
Mpigi-Kanoni (65kms)
Kanoni-Sembabule-Sembabule-Villa Maria (110kms)
Kampala-Entebbe Expressway/ Munyonyo (51kms)
Mubende–Kakumiro-Kibaale (64.5kms).
