For the nearly 3,000,000 people who travel to and Kampala City every day, the most common phrase they hear on cell phones and in other conversation all the time is:”traffic nungi”. This is the transport indignity they have to get through every day as they come to work and go back to their abodes.
Of course, over the years, we have complained about the transport and road policies of the Government, to no avail. It has taken all this time for the authorities to wake up and realize that this is a major menace to everybody – or, nearly everybody. For us, the common man, when we are caught up listening to “traffic nungi” exhortation, there is nothing to do but to wait until the vehicles start to flow again.
For the privileged, however, they move with outriders and sirens, or in helicopters. But even for those in Government vehicles, at times, this is not a quick solution. The roads can be so snagged that despite their sirens and flashing strobe lights on their vehicles, they have to wait like the rest of us. This at least is some consolation to some of us.
Where were they initially to plan for this situation? They should have realized, at least 20 years ago, that they were importing cars at the rate of 50,000 yearly without any change in the tight road system. Now they wake up with so-called plans for fly-overs. This, too, will take at least five years to complete. By that time they have imported another million vehicles. See!
The situation is going to be even worse. What next!
Budesta Iyegel
