East African Business Week

KAMPALA, UGANDA- Kampala City is more than 130 years old and was initially designed to accommodate 500,000 people.
The city has a day time population of about 4 million people. Being a developing city, there are many problems it faces. They range from garbage management, road maintenance, sanitation, traffic congestion, housing, unemployment, overpopulation and financial control among other issues.
The government recently created a separate entity, the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) to handle all issues regarding the city.
An Executive Director is Ms Jennifer Musisi Ssemakula. The city also has a ceremonial head - the Lord Mayor Elias Lukwago.
In her maiden budget, Ms Maria Kiwanuka, Uganda's Finance Minister allocated $17.2m (Ush43b) for the city roads apart from other revenue sources such as dues from licences, ground rate and advertising.
In the budget Kiwanuka indicated the government had embarked on a long-term plan for improving the transport network to ease traffic congestion in metropolitan Kampala. She said the plans include embarking on the programme for expansion of key highways to and from the city.
Former Kampala Town Clerk David Kigenyi Naluwayiro while speaking to the media earlier in the year noted that about 85% of the roads in Kampala need reworking because their designs were made 66 years ago when the city was still very small.
"The problem of Kampala roads is historical. They need total reconstruction which means that some people have to be removed, compensated to widen and reconstruct these roads," said Naluwayiro.
Kampala City has a road network of about 1500km, of which 340km are gazzetted tarmac roads, 760km murrum and about 400km community and private roads.
To upgrade all these roads, Kampala Capital City Authority need about Ush1.5 trillion ($625m), with a kilometer of road constructed at about Ush1b ($500,000).
In one of their Kampala City budget meetings, the city councilors passed a budget of $68m about Ush173b. This, though it's still below Naluwayiro's projected funding of $625m, the city councilors thought would make Kampala a cleaner city at least for this financial year.
They allocated Kampala Capital City Authority staff salaries $10m (Ush25b), garbage collection, $9.2m (Ush23b), and the five division headquarters each $2m (Ush5b), top managers' salaries $5.4m (Ush13.4b) and the city roads maintenance and construction $17.2m (Ush43b).
However, in the National Budget, the government managed to allot $17.2m for the city roads, $2.4m for restoration of street lights and $2.9m for garbage collection and proper disposal. This brought a big gap between the city councilor's budget and the contribution from the central government. It also brought another question of who will top up the Kampala budget.
 "I think the government is not serious to develop Kampala. How can it allocate only Ush43b for the worse Kampala city roads, to do what? The Lord Mayor, Mr Elias Lukwago, who bbelongs toa splinter opposition DP faction,  complained.
In the twist of "trying to top up" the budget, the lord mayor is at war with most people, who acquired Kampala Capital City Authority tenders.
The tender holders either remit little money to KCCA coffers or have had their tenders to carry out different works in the city expired.
The Lord Mayor has also questioned the way tender holders like the Uganda Taxi Owners and Drivers Association (UTODA) that manage public transport in Kampala, collect their fees and execute their work.
"We want to know how much they collect and how much they are supposed to remit to KCCA," adds Lukwago.
In the turn of events, different tender holders have been sent into panic. With the city in need of beautification, proper street lighting, decongestion, proper housing, good roads, proper planning and enforcement of the laws more funding should have been allocated by the government towards its development, the question remains; Who will fund its budget?.