Beginning of the End of Potholes

25 June 2011

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POTHOLES have played a large role in my life in Uganda. Before I came to Uganda I had not thought much about potholes, probably because there weren’t any, and people were not preoccupied with potholes.

However when I lived in Luweero, in the late eighties, the road to Kampala was just a series of potholes, with intermittent strips of broken tarmac. I drove a Nissan Bluebird, a low station wagon type of car.

The vehicle belonged to the Church Mission Society and when I left it back to the central office at Namerembe Cathedral, the engine was no longer on its mountings and the shock absorbers no longer absorbed any shocks.

This was not a complete surprise to those who had seen me driving through the villages, scattering chickens in my wake. I had adopted a driving style of putting my foot down and ignoring the potholes, there were just too many of them to drive carefully.

One reason I went into local politics was potholes, I was so fed up with traffic jams caused by potholes and so ashamed of the city, that I felt I needed to be in a position where I could do something about these issues, apart from talk.

Of course there were many other reasons for this decision, which concerned service delivery, but fixing potholes was part of my agenda. This week is, therefore, a significant milestone for me, because we have finally started fixing potholes in Makindye and I hope that within a few months we can call potholes a thing of the past.

The week was also significant because of the passing of the budget for the new Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), – which among other priorities contains a budget for fixing potholes. The passage of the budget was far from smooth, despite the fact that there is a substantial contribution from the central government, of just over sh100b.

The reason for the stormy passage was related to disappointment on the part of some mayors of the divisions, that power had largely been devolved back to the centre. This led to dissatisfaction with the implementation of the new law, with some councillors wishing to take the budget back to the divisional councils for further consultation.

To make matters worse, the Secretary to the Treasury had given an ultimatum, that if the budget was not approved by Tuesday, KCCA would lose the funding from the central government. We were left between a rock and a hard place and after much debate and a marathon sitting, the budget was approved.

The new Kampala Capital City Authority Act brings a very different structure to that which was in place, where divisional councils were largely autonomous. This change has taken many councillors and mayors by surprise. In budgetary terms, whereas there were five divisions, each with their own budget in the past, there is now one centralised budget.

Councillors are also unhappy with the manner in which their allowances are approved by the minister in charge and not derived as a percentage of local revenue collected. The new system has advantages and disadvantages. For a division like Makindye, with a large number of slums with a high service demand, but limited income from local revenue collections, it is fairer. For a rich division like Central, with few slums and less demands, but more income, it is a disadvantage.

The Ministry of Finance has also tended to treat the authority as if it was a wholly owned government body, such as ‘Uganda wildlife authority’, or even a government department, run only by a minister and technical staff. They seem to have forgotten that there are numerous elected politicians involved. However, with goodwill, these difficulties can be resolved. We should remind ourselves that we are all there for service delivery, which is what the general public are concerned about.

Potholes and garbage are not the main topic of conversation in other countries, simply because they have already been taken care of by the local councils. In Kampala we have become obsessed by such issues, because they have persisted for many years, but at least we have now made a start.

AllAfrica – All the Time