Hon John Nasasira Should Be Held Responsible For The Accident Prone Roads

Hon John Nasasira Should Be Held Responsible For The  Accident Prone Roads

In the past month of June alone, over thirty Ugandans have perished in road accidents.  Most of the fatal accidents have happened on Masaka road.

Masaka road has now become the main butcher of Ugandans to an extent that it has been given a satirical name of ‘massacre’.
 

Most frustrated Ugandans have since heaped blame on the police for not policing the roads professionally, while others have blamed the road users for driving recklessly.
However some experts insist that Masaka road was constructed unprofessionally.  
too much tar was heaped on the road making it very dangerous for commuters. Normally tar has to be mixed with stones. 
 During the hot weather the road tends to be slippery due to the heat that makes the tar to melt. And during the rainy season , the roads tend to be very slippery as well because there are not enough stones to grip the tires of the vehicles. 

likewise , when oil spills on the road , it makes it very prone to accidents.  
That same masaka road as dangerous spots which need to be marked for road users to drive slowly
Alternatively , road humps could have prevented alot of the accidents that have occured on that road.

But during his reign as minster of works , Hon John Nasasira opposed the idea of erecting humps on the highways. 

He reasoned that road humps were a nuisance and delayed the transportation of goods.     

 

The point to note here is that while the police is mandated to regulate the road usage, it cannot perform adequately when the roads are of poor quality. 
  Likewise , while its appropriate to blame the road users for reckless driving , it’s imperative to also take not of the fact that the road designers have got to make the roads in a user-friendly way that makes it difficult for them  to cause accidents.

You can casually say that Uganda is the only country which makes roads (with two and a half lanes) where big vehicles cannot adequately overtake each other.

Why make such narrow roads?

In more civilized countries   the line minster of roads would be tasked to explain the anomaly.

He would be tasked to explain why his ministry constructed roads that were not fitting the desired standards and are by and large death traps.

Yet the road sector has always consumed a large chunk of the national budget.

During the 2015-16 budgets, the Transport and Infrastructure was allocated Shs3.3 trillion which represents 18.2 percent of the total Shs23 trillion resource envelopes.

The frustrating aspect of it all is that the most enduring oversight is the lack of foresight in regard to the prevention or minimization of road accidents.

There are no signs posts, no humps to slow down speeding vehicles. This leaves the citizens exposed to road accidents.

Who Is The Culprit

And one of the most culpable people who should be brought to book is the longest serving former minister of roads, Hon John Nasasira.

Almost 95% of the roads were constructed during his reign as minister of roads and works. And he unilaterally announced that he was against the erection of road humps on the highways.

He forgot that his position was a direct danger to his fellow citizens who use those roads on a daily basis. As a political head of the ministry, Mr. Nasasira failed to make a case for value for money with the road companies. Yet he is an engineer by profession.

At the end of the day , it’s beginning to prove to everyone concerned that despite of the huge chunks of resources dedicated to the road sector , Ugandans have got a raw deal.

In fact most of the roads need to be redone to fit with the challenges of the transportation of 38 million Ugandans and projected to hit a 50 million mark in the next ten years.

Although one line minister of roads Hon Abraham Byandala was brought to book for mishandling the katosi road, there are so many roads which have been mishandled.

Ugandans should ask questions

Who was the person in charge during the construction of Masaka road?

Ugandans should ask for accountability from the officials concerned.

And it’s fair to say that since john Nasasira who was the line minister during the construction of most road projects, and was known to oppose the erection of road humps which could have mitigated on the road carnage, should be brought to book.
The Way Forward

• government needs to address the issue of road width because most roads are too narrow to accommodate the ever increasing traffic on Ugandan roads.
• the dangerous spots on Ugandan roads need to be identified and fixed with road humps and road signs that warn road users to drive slowly. 
• The officers responsible for these roads need to be brought to book.\i believe that Hon john Nasasira hs got a very good story to tell about the poor state of Ugandan roads , since he reigned for very many years as minister of the road sector.
• most ugandan roads need to be redone to fit with the chalenging weather conditions and the ever increasing population.    

The author Fred Daka Kamwada is a journalist, researcher and blogger

Contact him on kamwadafred@gmail.com