Wednesday 11th 2016 the day before the presidential swearing in ceremony was one of the darkest days of my life. The reason why this day will forever be etched in my mind is the fact that instead of commuting back home in a taxi, walk on roads constructed by my tax payer money simply because my taxis had failed to navigate the traffic that had been created by the closure of Entebbe road.
I wouldn’t have minded if I was my healthy self that day because walking long distances is not a problem to me but not only was I sick, I was also broke and couldn’t afford a Boda-Boda.
Well, I understand that in order to ease the traffic and to ensure the safety of our dignitaries who came to witness the swearing in ceremony of our president, government thought it was best if it closed Entebbe road but was this the only way?
Weren’t there any other alternatives that could serve the same purpose? Because surely, the closure of Entebbe road not only affected the people living on Entebbe road but also the whole of Kampala and the surrounding suburbs. As citizens of Uganda, we were all inconvenienced.
This made me wonder, do we mean so little to our government? Worst of all, government did not apologize for inconveniencing us.
Because I work in Kampala and had to go back, I did not know it was going to be so difficult, I couldn’t even afford a boda-boda because bodas had also hiked their fare making it 20,000 up to Kitende so I had to do with walking.
I am also very disappointed in the NRM for not constructing viable alternative routes in its 30 years in power. Doesnt government in all these years see the need for alternative roads.
If our transportation system is this poor and we always have this problem of sharing roads with dihnataries, isnt it a high time that governemt started on the development of these alternative roads
We surely need to develop and improve our feeder roads that can accommodate us all including emmergency vehicles so that it eliminates the problem of traffic jams and prevent such incidences of closing our roads but what could be the use? Because I am aware that if corruption still rules, nothing meaningful can be achieved.
So next time, if the government is not ready to construct roads that would accommodate us whole, instead of closing our roads, I suggest they use their helicopters to fly their invited dignitaries to their destinations. That way, it would be far easier in terms of security and faster for transportation and we citizens would not be inconvenienced in anyway.
I am aware that if Mr. Museveni is president, all things in Uganda belong to him but I want to remind him that we are tax payers and entitled to Uganda’s resources as well.
