Let me cut to the bone, no decorations. Kampala doesn’t need more roads. Kampala needs rearrangement.
Head high. Eyes open. Dignity for our city.
Today?
You sit in traffic for 2 hours to move 3 kilometers.
Not because we have too many cars.
Not because we don’t have roads.
But because 70% of our roads are eating themselves.
THE GLOBAL LESSON: WE DON’T NEED MORE ASPHALT, WE NEED MORE INTELLIGENCE
Look at the countries that actually have traffic.
Germany has the highest vehicle density in Europe. Over 600 cars per 1000 people.
In the last 60 years, they have not built a single kilometer of new inter-city road outside of intersections and flyovers. Why? Because they mastered what we refuse to: use what you have efficiently.
They covered, channeled, and engineered. They did not expand blindly.
London. Paris.
Cities 800 to 1000 years old. Their building pavements and property lines are permanently fixed. There is no land to waste on “new roads”.
So what did they do? They went underground, they went vertical, and they reclaimed space from bad design.
They didn’t chase land. They chased efficiency.
Now look at Kampala. We are doing the opposite.
We are a young city, acting like we are out of land.
THE TECHNICAL TRUTH FROM THE GROUND
Our problem is not traffic. Our problem is design.
OPEN SIDE DRAINS = OPEN WOUNDS
Walk from Wandegeya to Clock Tower.
What do you see? Open side drains and side yard drains that swallow half the road.
They swallow space. They swallow 2 meters left, 2 meters right.
They swallow tonnes of rubbish every rainy season: kaveera, sand, plastic, dead rats.
That rubbish blocks water. Blocked water destroys tarmac. Destroyed tarmac creates potholes. Potholes create traffic.
If we covered those drains with reinforced slabs, we immediately gain 4 meters of road.
2 meters left. 2 meters right.
Boom. Instant motorized corridor.
Boda has space. Taxi has space. Ambulance has space. Life has space.
No land acquisition. No compensation. No new tarmac. Just engineering.
OUR SEWERAGE IS 50-60 YEARS OLD
Let’s be honest about history. The city sewerage and drainage master plan was drawn when Kampala was a town of 200,000 people.
I was the main executor when we were constructing Lusaka and Luanda roads.
Do you know what those two cities do not have? Open storm water drains in the CBD.
I have also worked on roads in Windhoek. You will not find an open storm water drain there.
Why? Because open drains are a danger.
Danger to pedestrians who fall in.
Danger to boda bodas and vehicles that veer off.
And yes, danger to security - thieves make dinner and bed in these drains.
They are not drainage. They are hiding places.
The world buried its storm water 50 years ago. We are still exposing ours and calling it infrastructure.
TREES THAT FEED VS TREES THAT DECORATE
Why are we planting Palm trees that give us nothing?
Beautiful, yes. But hungry. Thirsty. Useless in an economy.
Why can’t we make Kampala a FRUIT CITY?
Mango lines on Jinja Road.
Orange trees on Ggaba Road.
Jackfruit, Ovacado, Guava along the Northern Bypass.
Children walking to school picking a fruit.
Mothers selling by the roadside.
Tourists saying: “This is the city that feeds you as you drive.”
During our days in the 1970s, we could eat Jambula, Badam, Red coconut in Jinja by the roadsides, even Nsali along the road to the source of the Nile.
Palm trees don’t feed anyone.
Fruit trees feed people. Feed jobs. Feed pride.
THE PRESCRIPTION: CHEAP, FAST, DIGNIFIED
The Oracles of Kifuuta would say:
"Tegeka, Zimba ate Gazziwa"
Plan first. Build right. Then expand.
So here is the plan made by the angle from the Lusaka.
.Cover the drains. Reclaim 4 meters on every major road without buying one inch of land.
.Stop digging new roads. Start engineering the ones we have, like Germany did.
.Bury the storm water. Like Lusaka, Luanda, Windhoek, London, Paris. Open drains have no place in a capital city.
.Plant fruit. Turn road reserves into food forests and income.
We don’t need flyovers everywhere. We need covered drains.
We don’t need foreign consultants to tell us this. We need Ugandan engineers to implement it.
We don’t need more concrete. We need more fruit trees.
THE FINAL WORD
Kampala is beautiful.
But beauty without planning is just a photo for tourists.
The day we remember to build a city for the people who live in it —
is the day Kampala stops choking and starts flowing.
Dress Kampala like a city that has something to lose.
Not like a city we’re just passing through.
The plan is cheap. The dignity of our capital is expensive.
Let’s build it, as I go back to Kifuuta Katooke Kyotera Buddu to pick my coffee.
