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President Museveni has directed the Ministry of Finance to “urgently” release 6 billion to help work on potholes and the nature of roads in Kampala City.

“I now direct the Ministry of Finance to urgently release the quarterly contribution to KCCA of shs 6 billion for pothole filling, repairs and maintenance of roads,” President Museveni directed on Wednesday 19^th April 2023 while speaking at State House in Entebbe.

Museveni said he had been informed that only 30% of the money required to maintain roads in Kampala had been released this financial year causing roads outside the African Development Bank project to get in deplorable conditions. He therefore directed that the potholes in the country’s capital are worked upon.

“I task the Kampala Executive Director and her team to give the country an account of progress in this matter,” he added.

The development comes on the backdrop of ‘protests’ by Ugandans on social media over the poor state of roads in Kampala, most of which are filled with potholes.

The protest name #Kampala­­PotholeExhibition on several social media platforms saw Ugandans take photos and videos of roads with potholes and post them online as a way of reminding KCCA about the deplorable state of the city’s infrastructure. Many have since blasted KCCA and the entire government for turning a blind eye to the deplorable situation of roads in the city.

In an emergency press briefing on Tuesday, KCCA Executive Director, Dorothy Kisaka said “They don’t have funds to fill the potholes. KCCA needs anywhere between shs75 – 100 billion annually in order to be able to effectively maintain our roads and yet we get only shs26 billion for this task,” Kisaka said.

Traders under their umbrella body Kampala City Traders Association (Kacita) have threatened to stop paying trade licences to Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), should they fail to urgently fix potholes that have become a pain in the neck for motorists.

Mr Thadeus Musoke, the chairperson of Kacita, yesterday reasoned that traders pay a lot of taxes to KCCA, but they don’t in turn get services, citing potholes that have worsened traffic jam flow and slowed down business.

KCCA is facing challenges with budgets. This situation is not only affecting KCCA but most ministries, departments and agencies which too have had to scale back their activities. Unfortunately for KCCA, the services we are supposed to provide such as road and drainage maintenance to avert the current situation of poor roads and flooding are in the full view of everyone hence the constant frontline criticism.

We cannot trivialise the issue of potholes on our roads. KCCA is aware that potholes drive up road user costs through frequent vehicle repairs, long travel times, high accident rates, and others.