The Special Forces Command (SFC) has rubbished summons by Kampala Capital City Authority’s (KCCA) Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago over the state of city roads.
They say Lukwago is not in the chain of command and is not responsible for summoning the force, explaining that the contract was given to them by President Yoweri Museveni, the commander-in-chief.
The response follows Lukwago’s press briefing on Monday, where he issued summons to the SFC Construction Regiment’s assistant project manager, Lt Eng. Kikomeko Kigongo, over delayed works.
Kigongo was expected to appear before the special city executive committee meeting next Wednesday at City Hall, to give a comprehensive report and full accountability, an invitation the force has declined.
“We will not appear before Lukwago because he has no authority over us pertaining to the contract. All he has done is create the impression that SFC is meant to work on all the roads in Kampala. I think he should be advised to recheck his utterances,” Capt. Jimmy Omara, SFC’s spokesperson, said.
Last May, the President directed KCCA to work with the SFC Construction Regiment to repair potholes and carry out road maintenance in Kampala city.
The development followed a public uproar over the poor state of roads in the country. However, according to Lukwago, his office was not furnished with the details of how KCCA was to work with SFC on the road repairs.
“We are summoning Kigongo because we have not seen any progress on the work. It is obvious that there are regrettable delays that are haunting road users here in the city,” Lukwago said yesterday.
However, according to the SFC’s Construction Regiment, 75% of the scope of work given to them by KCCA in terms of repairing Kampala potholes has been completed and is only awaiting handover.
“We have done nearly 75% of the pothole areas, and we are certain we will reach 80% during this phase. We will complete the remaining 20% when we request the balance in the next phase. We still have another seven months to go since the schedule was 12 months. I can authoritatively say we are moving on well,”Kikomeko said.
“In terms of size, initially, we were supposed to fill potholes equivalent to 12,000sq.m, but we added others. For now, our task is about 20,000sq.m,” he said.
Kikomeko said they have sealed more than 14,000sq.m of potholes as they wind up this phase of the works.
SECTIONAL REPAIRS
As part of their contract, SFC was tasked with doing sectional work on selected roads. Sectional works involved not only repairing potholes but also working afresh on a section of the road by grading it and tarrnacking it up. Kikomeko said so far, they have worked on Martin Road, Rashid Khamis Road, Ginnery Road, Fort Road, Kololo, Nyanza Crescent, Edward Avenue, Impala Avenue, Roscoe Road, and many other areas in Kololo, where he said over 9096 of the work has been completed.
“We are certain that by the end of next week, we will have nearly done 98% of all the sectional repair work.” The assistant project manager explained that the project’s cost was revised from sh2.th to sh3.8b, due to an increased scope of work.
