Eng. Balimwezo appointed Chairperson of City Roads Committee

Eng. Ronald Balimwezo Nsubuga, the Member of Parliament for Nakawa East, has been appointed as the new Chairperson of the City Roads Committee, which is tasked with monitoring the road infrastructure in Kampala.

The committee is established under the Uganda Road Funds of 2008 and consists of the Lord Mayor, KCCA Executive Director, City Members of Parliament, Division Mayors, Town clerks, Director of Engineering, and City Minister for Works.

Balimwezo’s appointment was made after a closed-door meeting attended by the Executive Director of KCCA Dorothy Kisaka, the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, other division mayors, and other Members of Parliament from Kampala.

According to data from KCCA, out of the 21,000 km of roads in Kampala, only 654 km are tarmacked, with 380 km in poor condition requiring repair. The Uganda Road Fund has been providing KCCA with only between 20 to 26 billion Shillings for road maintenance.

Funding for road construction has primarily been obtained through loans from the World Bank and now the African Development Bank-ADB. Balimwezo stressed the need for increased funding to improve the road network in Kampala.

Lukwago pointed out that although the Act requires the line Minister to define the functions or mandate of the Committee, this has yet to be done. However, he added that the committee will begin operations immediately, in accordance with the general provision that it monitors the road infrastructure in the City.

Kisaka hopes that with the committee in place, political leaders can closely monitor the city’s road network and jointly demand increased funding from the central government.

Recently, an online exhibition of the poor road network in Kampala, spearheaded by renowned cartoonist and Philosophy lecturer at Makerere University Dr Jimmy Spire Ssentongo, prompted intensified discussions on the state of road infrastructure in the city.

This resulted in the President ordering the Ministry of Finance to immediately release six billion shillings to KCCA to work on City roads.