GEN. KATUMBA URGES PARLIAMENT TO BOOST ROAD FUND TO SAVE EXISTING ROADS

Works and Transport Minister Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala has renewed calls for increased and predictable financing of the Uganda Road Fund, warning that persistent underfunding is accelerating deterioration of roads nationwide, with urban authorities like Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) bearing the heaviest burden.

Katumba said inadequate allocations to the Road Fund have weakened routine maintenance across the country, forcing implementing agencies to react to failures rather than prevent them.

“If we do not adequately fund road maintenance, we end up wasting what we have already built,” Katumba said. “It does not make sense to continue expanding the network while existing roads collapse.”

He was addressing Parliament’s Physical Planning Committee, chaired by Bugabula South MP Maurice Kibalya, during a session that reviewed infrastructure planning and financing.

KCCA, which relies largely on the Uganda Road Fund to maintain Kampala’s city roads, traffic lights and auxiliary infrastructure, received about UGX 10 billion for road maintenance in the 2025/2026 financial year.

The amount is far below the authority’s annual maintenance needs given the size, usage and strategic importance of the city’s road network.

Kampala manages approximately 2,114 kilometers of roads, of which only about 770 kilometers are paved. With limited funding, KCCA is often compelled to prioritize emergency interventions, leaving many roads to deteriorate beyond the point of routine maintenance and into costly rehabilitation.

Delayed maintenance has led to widespread surface failure, drainage breakdowns and rapid pavement degradation, particularly in high-traffic commercial and residential areas. These conditions, they said, are not the result of poor planning, but of insufficient and unpredictable maintenance funding.

Lawmakers acknowledged that neglecting maintenance has steadily eroded the national road stock.

“We are paying the price for years of underfunding maintenance,” Katumba said. “Parliament and the Ministry of Finance must align to protect what we already have.”

Kasilo County MP Elijah Okupa raised concerns over enforcement gaps that allow construction in road reserves, noting that limited Road Fund resources further constrain agencies like KCCA from correcting past planning violations.

Government currently allocates about UGX 500 billion annually to the road fund, but MPs and technical experts said the amount remains inadequate for maintaining both national and urban road networks amid rapid urbanization and rising traffic volumes.

Engineering experts urged government to strengthen and diversify Road Fund financing to ensure predictable disbursements.

KCCA Director for Engineering and Technical Services Eng. Justus Akankwasa, pointed to improvements in Kampala’s urban planning, noting that the new Kampala Physical Development Plan has introduced clearer zoning and more orderly high-rise development, progress that risks being undermined if road maintenance remains underfunded.

MPs warned that failure to reinforce the Road Fund could stall economic activity, raise transport costs and reverse hard-won infrastructure gains.

By Geofrey Mutegeki Araali

Communication and Media Relations Officer