{"id":43294,"date":"2023-01-16T18:14:26","date_gmt":"2023-01-16T18:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/unra-had-become-problematic-says-otafiire"},"modified":"2023-01-16T18:43:29","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T18:43:29","slug":"unra-had-become-problematic-says-otafiire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/unra-had-become-problematic-says-otafiire","title":{"rendered":"Unra had become problematic, says\u00a0Otafiire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>Internal Affairs Minister Maj Gen (Rtd) Kahinda Otafiire said the failure by the Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) to construct long-lasting roads across the country raised a lot of \u201cbig question marks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking yesterday at the second anniversary of the Nicole Foundation at St Mark\u2019s Church in Entebbe, Gen Otafiire said the \u201ccost of one road could have done two roads.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not a road engineer but I have common sense,\u201d he said of the country\u2019s tripling cost of constructing a road per kilometre. \u201cIf Unra cannot do roads that last longer, then we put question mark there. We question one\u2019s patriotism,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The silver lining, he added, is that Unra is now going back to the Ministry of Works and Transport as part of the rationalisation and merger of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).<\/p>\n

The government conceived the merger of MDAs to check on the bloated inefficient bureaucracy and save at least Shs1trillion annually in expenditure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had a lot of problems with Unra,\u201d Gen Otafiire said, inferring that the exorbitant costs of road works are driven by corruption. \u201cWhy don\u2019t people cut down on their personal needs so that Ugandans have good roads?\u201d he wondered.<\/p>\n

The sharp rise in road construction costs has for long remained a subject of debate and suppositions, especially after President Museveni, nearly 15 years ago, delineated infrastructure development (dams, roads and railway) as his government\u2019s main emphasis.<\/p>\n

Unra, which was born in 2008 with a specific mandate of developing and maintaining the national road network and advising on general roads policy, routinely attributes the obscene costs to the road designs, laborious land acquisition process, and delays on the government side to fulfil its contractual obligations which eats up in the contract prices.<\/p>\n

Experts, however, say the heavy kickbacks–commonly referred to as cost of facilitating business–paid across the chain to secure road construction tenders is complementary in driving the costs up. The unit cost per kilometre on average, in Uganda costs between $750,000 (Shs2.5b) and $1m (Shs3.5b) while the same in Kenya goes for $300,000 (Shs1b) and $330,000 (Shs1.1b) in Rwanda<\/p>\n

Maj Otafiire further called for tougher measures to be put in place to check on the \u201cupside down mentality\u201d exhibited by drivers on the roads, which results in nearly 3,000 fatalities annually, according to the last published police crime report.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of foolishness on the road. Let\u2019s look for stiff measures to deter these crashes. But of course when you die, there is no stiffer punishment than death. People need to learn that you are driving a machine; it is not your relative. A machine does what you tell it to do; if you die alone, that is okay, but unfortunately there is usually a lot of innocent lives involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Road carnage costs the country at least Shs4.4trillion annually, according to a 2018 International Road Assessment Programme study. The country, the study showed, loses Shs215m for every fatality and Shs53m for every serious injury.<\/p>\n

The Nicole Foundation is a road safety not-for profit, started in memory of the late Nicole Ahumuza, who died in a car accident in January 2020 in Kasese District. She was daughter to Mr Ernest Rubondo, the executive director of the Petroleum Authority of Uganda, the oil sector regulator.<\/p>\n

The foundation advocates for road safety through advocacy campaigns, including mapping out of all blackspots on all major roads.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Internal Affairs Minister Maj Gen (Rtd) Kahinda Otafiire said the failure by the Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) to construct long-lasting roads across the country raised a lot of \u201cbig question marks.\u201d Speaking yesterday at the second anniversary of the Nicole Foundation at St Mark\u2019s Church in Entebbe, Gen Otafiire said the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":43293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-43294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nUnra had become problematic, says\u00a0Otafiire - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Internal Affairs Minister Maj Gen (Rtd) Kahinda Otafiire said the failure by the Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/unra-had-become-problematic-says-otafiire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unra had become problematic, says\u00a0Otafiire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Internal Affairs Minister Maj Gen (Rtd) Kahinda Otafiire said the failure by the Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/unra-had-become-problematic-says-otafiire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-16T18:14:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-01-16T18:43:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1673880274.98.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/unra-had-become-problematic-says-otafiire#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/unra-had-become-problematic-says-otafiire\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Unra had become problematic, says\u00a0Otafiire\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-16T18:14:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-01-16T18:43:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/unra-had-become-problematic-says-otafiire\"},\"wordCount\":591,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/unra-had-become-problematic-says-otafiire#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1673880274.98.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/unra-had-become-problematic-says-otafiire#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/unra-had-become-problematic-says-otafiire\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/unra-had-become-problematic-says-otafiire\",\"name\":\"Unra had become problematic, says\u00a0Otafiire - 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