How much do you know about your govt road?

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Physical infrastructure, and particularly road construction and maintenance, usually accounts for bigger chunks of the government budgets compared to most other sectors. This, therefore, calls for citizens’ knowledge and understanding of the projects, especially if they are funded by the government, and more so, if the funds are borrowed, to be able to demand accountability and the promised service.

Most road projects in Kampala, for example, are done using funds borrowed from development partners like the World Bank and the African Development Bank. However, it may be difficult to know what to demand unless the initial stages of the project provide platforms for data sharing, including public or resident consultations and a framework to make details of the project public.

CoST Uganda, a multi-stakeholder initiative, promotes transparency by disclosing data from public infrastructure investment, helping to inform and empower citizens, enabling them to hold decision-makers to account. According to CoST, informed citizens and responsive public institutions help drive reforms that reduce mismanagement, inefficiency, corruption, and the risks posed to the public from poor quality infrastructure.

A look around Kampala reveals varying levels of public knowledge of the infrastructure projects that go through or are situated in their areas, and cannot therefore, even demand value for money, recognition of their human rights, or the protection of the environment. The Nakawa-Ntinda Road reconstruction and dualing and the Kulambiro Ring Road upgrade to paved standard, both in Nakawa Division, along with the reconstruction and widening of Acacia (John Babiiha) Avenue in Kampala Central Division, are examples of recently concluded funded projects.

The other is the reconstruction of East Konge Road, also known as Serwamba Baker Road. (Residents of Makindye Division also call it Muhoozi’s road.) The World Bank funds these, undthe er Second Kampala Institutional and Infrastructure Development Project (KIIDP-2) and the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area Urban Development Program.

Uganda Radio Network asked two residents, including the veteran Local Council 1 Chairperson of Windsor Village, Kololo III Parish, about what they know about the Babiiha Avenue project, and the common response was, ‘we don’t know much about the road. Steven Kainamira, a resident, said they were not consulted and just saw men commencing road works, who they later learnt were China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited; therefore have no details of the project.

To some extent, however, he exonerated the responsible persons or authority for this, saying the nature of their village may not allow for effective consultations. “You know, ours is a diplomatic village, so even if they want to consult, residents may not leave their wall fences to attend a meeting,” said Kainamira.

His view was reechoed by Mzee Karoli Sengoga, the LC1 Chairperson of the same village, who adds that they appreciate that the road was done well, but that they cannot make any queries since they do not even know what the contractor was supposed to do.

But is there a need for them to be consulted? Mzee Sengoga’s answer is absolute.

He says they should be consulted so that they can know how to as for accountability, whether the road is being done as it was supposed to be in the contract, or whether the residents are entitled to some benefits like compensation, jobs and others.

It was quite different from Nakawa-Ndinda and Kulambiro Ringroad, where the residents were invited for consultative meetings with KCCA before the project was commenced. Joseph Kamya Katende, the Chairperson, Kigoowa II Zone LC1, says that they were asked whether they wanted a better road under certain conditions, including surrendering land.

He says one of the achievements of consultations was the agreement by the residents to give up their land without compensation because the government expressly said that there was no money for that.

There were also follow-up meetings by committees that were formed after the first consultative meeting, and these were vital in monitoring the progress of the works, according to Katende. Unlike Acacia Avenue, Nakawa, Ntinda and Kulambiro areas are heavily populated.

The LC1 Chairman of Kasaana also agreed that they were consulted and the residents gave their views on the project, and that it was largely done according to what they were promised.

Ronald Balimwezo, himself an engineer, who was a Division Chairperson at the time of the road works, says that consultations were done before the construction works began and that talks continued throughout and at different levels, especially regarding residents’ concerns.

However, he says it was hard getting information about the proceedings, especially from the contractors, China State Construction and Engineering Corporation Ltd (CSCEC), who were seemingly unwilling to reveal information. He says that as citizens and leaders, they have the responsibility to monitor government projects, but that they cannot access, for example, design and other documents or explanations of some issues from the contractors.

But, he says, KCCA would have most of the information that they needed.

For example, he says that many residents did not know that some of the road extensions were provided by the World Bank because of the willingness of the residents to offer land for free, but many residents did not know that.

In some parts of Kampala, information flow about government projects is somewhat limited due to language barriers, as non-Ugandans or Ugandans of non-Ugandan origin (who may not be able to communicate in Luganda or English), increasingly account for large parts of the population.

But according to Robert Settuba, the LC1 Chairman of Upper Konge I Zone LC1, some of them are not even bothered about the local or even government leadership and government programmes, “but regardless, we try to understand them”. The majority of these are from the Horn of Africa(Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan) as well as from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

However, he said, the consultations that were called on the East Konge Road upgrade project were well attended and people gave their views because they have for long longed for it.

He, however, does not know why KCCA decided to name the road (which runs from Lukuli Road to the top of Konge Hill at the border with Salaama Parish) “East Konge”, yet it is known to the leaders as “Serwamba Baker Road”, while residents nicknamed it “Muhoozi Road”.

Both KCCA and the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) agree that consultations between the public or residents on one side and the project developer (in this case, KCCA) and the contractors, on the other, of vital for promoting accountability and transparency.

Chris Magoba, Manager, Corporate and Public Affairs at PPDA, says that during the needs assessment, before even a final decision is made, the procuring entity also consults with the residents or the public and the local leaders, explaining to them what the project would entail, to have their input too.

Access to information is vital because the roads, like any other public infrastructure cost the taxpayer billions of shillings, money paid back to the lenders, the World Bank and the African Development Bank, by the government.

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