KCCA gets more time to ‘waste’ on road repairs

AfDB gives city 40 months more to complete roads rehabilitation project

Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | Kampala Capital City Authority officials have got another 40 months to waste on a roads rehabilitation project funded by the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) which was supposed to be completed by 2025.

This follows the conclusion of an appraisal visit by an AfDB team that revised the timelines for the completion of the Kampala City Roads Rehabilitation Project (KCRRP).

The US$288 million (Shs 1.08 trillion) project which is aimed at “increasing the stock and quality of strategic infrastructure to accelerate the capital city’s competitiveness” was initially scheduled to be concluded in 48 months, starting July 2021. But that has been pushed to 2027.

During the recent visit to Kampala and subsequent tour of ongoing road works by a team from the AfDB, it was discovered that with over 75% of the allocated time gone, just about 28% of the road works totalling 69km have so far been implemented.

At that pace, KCCA will possibly have done only 50% of the project. Meantime, Kampala residents will have to endure another 40 months of dusty, potholed, and flooded roads. In spite of KCCA’s slow pace, the AfDB team which visited Kampala in July this year appeared happy with the “progress.”

“The African Development Bank is very happy to be associated with this project. We are committed to continuing to mainstream resilience measures into the project to ensure that it remains sustainable and adapts to future climate shocks,” said Prof. Anthony Nyong, the Bank’s Director for Climate Change and Green Growth, who led the team.

He was joined by Olufunso Somorin, AfDB’s Regional Principal Climate Change Officer, and Muthoni Nduhiu, a Climate Change expert. They were taken around the road works by Justus Akankwasa, the Director of Engineering and Technical Services at Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA).

Reducing traffic congestion is one of the project’s main objectives to be achieved through upgrade and expansion of the city’s road network. Technically, the implementers speak of enhancement of the capital city’s improved attractiveness and transport efficiency by maximising “agglomerative benefits” of access.

Experts on urban mobility say poor road infrastructure in Kampala often leads to frequent traffic jams, hindering access to workplaces, commercial areas, and social services.

The project is also aimed at improving air quality in the city through the implementation of scheduled Eco-Bus transit services and broadening travel choices for non-motorised movements within Kampala by expanding networks of walkways and cycling tracks. The project also has a component of planting over 10,000 trees along the streets for carbon capture and noise reduction.

Kampala’s dilapidated roads

Kampala, which is Uganda’s administrative and commercial capital, faces several infrastructure challenges. Most of its roads are in poor condition, particularly during the rainy seasons, and only 30% of the city’s 2,110 km road network are paved.

According to an appraisal report published in October, 2019, the project is expected to benefit at least 1.6 million people, including commuters, business owners, and transport providers by tackling congestion in Kampala. This is expected to be achieved through improvements to the road network, upgrading of traffic junctions, and drainage capacity enhancements to mitigate street flooding.

According to a project proposal brief prepared by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development which was presented to the 10th Parliament in April, 2020, the project is expected to ease congestion in Kampala and will see the improvement of 69 km of roads, 134 km of non-motorised traffic facilities, and the provision of street lighting and scheduled eco-bus services, including bus depots and dedicated lanes. It will also upgrade 22 road junctions and enhance the drainage capacity of the city to mitigate flooding on the streets.

The rehabilitation and paving of city roads will bring social and environmental benefits to city residents, road users and businesses by reducing the cost of transport from wear and tear of vehicles and a reduction of congestion that will reduce the time spent in traffic, improved parking areas for trucks, taxis and other road users.

The finance ministry officials told Parliament that the average city dweller loses over an hour of their productive time in traffic jam each day. “This problem is not only affecting average city dwellers but equally businesses as well as making the city and the country at large, unattractive to investors.”

They said traffic fatalities in Kampala have been on the rise due to the high motorization levels and general bad condition of the road infrastructure. Kampala city alone accounts for up to 50% of the total number of accidents and 22% of all fatal crashes in the country. The officials further noted that public transport provision remains sub-optimal, provided in an unregulated environment with heightened competition with boda boda.

The project is particularly targeting the reduction in average travel time within the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area from 4.1 minutes per kilometre to 3.5 minutes per kilometre through among others; significant investment in rehabilitation and maintenance of existing transport infrastructure as well as consolidation of additional investment in development of new infrastructure.

Among other auxiliary amenities coming with the project are complementary social initiatives, notably entrepreneurship training for at least 200 women and youth, and the construction of roadside markets and at least 30 public toilets in Kampala.

KCCA’s Akankwasa told the visiting delegation that “As a city of seven hills, Kampala faces persistent flooding challenges that require sustainable, newly designed systems.” In addition, inadequate solid waste management exacerbates flooding and impacts surrounding villages, necessitating integrated climate solutions.

“We need support to re-engineer these systems to tackle the climate challenges we face, such as flooding.” This perhaps explains the reason why the AfDB project integrated five kilometres of drainage structures to enhance stormwater management.

Yet, ever since the government secured funding for the repair of the city roads, several setbacks have befallen the project with both the technical and political wings of the city authority disagreeing on how best to execute the project.

Not the first time

This is not the first time a team from the AfDB is visiting Kampala to follow-up on progress of the project. In May, last year, a similar delegation from the Bank inspected ongoing road works of the project to ascertain progress but also ensure the quality of the works. This time, the AfDB team was led by George Makajuma.

They visited Old Mubende Road, Kabega Road, Suuna I Road, 7th Street, Old Port Bell Road, Spring Road and Port Bell Road–roads which are currently under construction. The AfDB team also toured the contractors’ camps, held discussions with the contractors and noted operational issues. The team also held discussions with KCCA’s technical team and consultants on the project.

Interestingly, although KCCA officials noted at the time that the inspection and subsequent discussions between the AfDB officials, contractors, consultants and the KCCA technical team would foster collaboration and ensure the project proceeds smoothly, Ugandans were surprised when, seven months later, the Bank threatened to suspend funding for the project.

In December last year, the AfDB wrote to Ramathan Ggoobi, the Finance Ministry’s Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury notifying the government of its intention to suspend disbursement of the funds for the project.

The letter which was dated 19 December 2023 and titled, “Kampala City Roads Rehabilitation Project Notice to suspend disbursement,” noted how the government had failed to provide counterpart funding while KCCA had also side-stepped compliance to environmental and social safeguards.

“In line with section VI of the General Conditions applicable to Loan Guarantee, and Grant Agreements of the Africa Development Bank and the African Development Fund and the Financing agreement between the Republic of Uganda and the AfDB, we regret to inform you that disbursement under the KCRRP will be suspended effective 1 February 2024 should the Executing Agency continue disregarding safeguards requirements under the project,” the AfDB said.

The AfDB said it had conducted transport sector supervision missions in April 2023 and November 2023 respectively, “during which a number of environmental and social safeguard issues were raised and duly discussed with the management of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) for immediate action.

“During the recently concluded mission, the Bank found that none of the remedial activities earlier agreed upon had been undertaken. Hence, the Bank’s assessment of KCRRP’s E&S (environmental and social) performance has been found to be unsatisfactory.”

The Bank said although the ESIA (Environment and Social Impact Assessment) for the project has been updated, the ESIA of the newly expanded scope had not been finalised.

This, the Bank said, was a concern since contractors were already on site and works were ongoing and/or about to commence in breach of section 4.03 of the signed financing agreement. The Bank noted how the Project Environmental Expert had unceremoniously left the project at the beginning of August 2023 meaning the project had been under implementation without an environmental specialist.

The AfDB further noted that KCCA had acquired the right of way (RoW) for some of the road projects through consent agreements signed with Project Affected Persons (PAPs). However, there had been a lack of full disclosure of the PAPs entitlement contrary to the Bank’s policy on the same.

Erias Lukwago, the Kampala City Lord Mayor told local broadcaster NTV at the time that the issues raised by the Bank were similar to what his office had flagged but the technical wing had ignored him. “These are matters we have always raised against a barrage of attacks from different corners; that we are anti-development, that Lukwago is belligerent; that he is all out to fight everybody at KCCA.”

However, David Luyimbazi, the KCCA Deputy Executive Director, speaking to the same television channel disagreed with Lukwago noting that considering the negotiations of the project had happened seven years earlier, so many things had changed along the way.

“For instance the roads that were selected then are different from the ones that are being done now,” Luyimbazi said, “Roads like Salaama, Muzito and Kiteezi are so vital but they came in late and didn’t have ESIA. But the AfDB wants an entire update of ESIA for the entire project.”

Luyimbazi said the AfDB would not suspend the project since KCCA had responded to the key issues the Bank wanted to be fixed.

While signing the loan agreement with the AfDB four years ago, Matia Kasaija, Uganda’s Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development described the Kampala roads project as being “transformative” but, it appears, Kampala’s residents will have to wait a little longer to see the transformation the minister referred to.