Are Kampala's Potholes Big Enough to Fish In?

KAMPALA, Uganda (Aug. 29) -- Few cities are likely to openly contest Ugandan capital Kampala's claim to being the "Pothole Capital of the World." Some of the open pits on the city's roads have been dubbed "lakes" and would be easier to cross by boat than by car. During rush hour, vehicles inch forward one by one to take a tepid plunge in the rainy season -- or just break an axle when the roads are dry.

Potholes are easily the most-talked-about feature in this city of 1.4 million people. They are considered a nuisance and a danger, and have become symbols of government apathy, mismanagement and institutional decay. "You can never feel comfortable driving on Kampala's roads with all the potholes," says Dan Wandera, 29, who drives one of the ubiquitous motorcycle taxis known as a boda-boda.

Everyone seems to know someone who's been injured in one. Recently, this reporter witnessed a boda-boda nosedive into a gaping pothole, flinging the passenger through the air, like a cowboy from a bronco, and into another pothole.

The pothole phenomenon has inspired at least two Facebook protest groups and a deep well of urban frustration. A report this week in the Kampala Daily Monitor recounts the business woes of residents of a street they now call "Lake Bunyonyi," where a megapothole -- 82 feet long and deep enough to bring cars to a permanent standstill -- keeps all but the most devoted customers away.

Now and then a Ugandan politician vows that potholes will soon be history, but residents remain unconvinced -- and even mocking. After a rain in June, some protesters posed with fishing rods on the edge of some of the largest street ponds, and passed the slimy fish they "caught" there on to passing motorists, who honked in approval.

As the potholes grow in number and size, they blight what could be the most attractive capital in East Africa. Kigali in neighboring Rwanda is pothole- and litter-free, but authoritarian and downright sleepy. Nairobi, Kenya, is chaotic and dangerous. Kampala stretches lazily across some 21 hills and basks mostly under warm sunshine. Nightlife is lively. The streets are safe even at night, and Ugandans are welcoming.

So why are the city's 186 miles of roads so badly pocked with potholes? City officials say it boils down to funding, pointing out that they receive roughly $7 million of the country's some $111 million annual budget for road maintenance -- despite the fact that Kampala produces 60 percent of the nation's wealth and is home to 80 percent of the nation's vehicles. Most of the city's roads were built in the 1950s and were meant to last only 15 years. Many of them could stand to be repaved entirely, not just patched. But redoing a single kilometer of road costs some $500,000.

Funding for Kampala, an opposition stronghold, is deeply politicized. There is no love lost between its mayor, Nasser Sebaggala, and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Some say Museveni's government intentionally withholds funds in order to turn Kampala voters against the opposition.

Sebaggala denies that a political conspiracy is at play, saying that when he was elected to his current mayoral term in 2006 (a previous term in 1998 was interrupted by a conviction and jail term in the U.S. for fraud), the road maintenance budget stood at only $600,000, less than a tenth what it is now. And as funding has improved, he says, so have Kampala's roads. "There have been many improvements since I took over," he says.

Taxi driver Osman Mugenyi, 40, disputes the claim. He has been bouncing through Kampala's dusty, pockmarked streets for 15 years now. He says his cab's suspension requires more maintenance than ever these days, and says he has to avoid ever-larger swaths of central Kampala during the rainy season to protect his car from flooding. He says it recently took him nearly two hours to move 500 yards along a pothole-laden stretch outside the country's top university, Makerere.

City Council spokesman Simon Rugadya Muhumuza predicts Kampala's roads will see major improvements soon -- when new funds materialize. He says the Ministry of Finance has earmarked an additional $50 million for road maintenance next year, and the World Bank is pitching in around $27 million over the next three years. China, already Uganda's second-largest foreign investor, has promised massive spending on road equipment and construction.

But some Ugandan officials have a long history of misappropriating funds. The most infamous episode occurred three years ago, when $149 million was allocated for city improvements -- much of it for roads -- ahead of a meeting of Commonwealth leaders. The meager results left the responsible ministries accused of major fraud and shoddy work, with some officials allegedly targeting funds to improve only the roads leading to their own homes.

On a recent night, a bartender at Mateo's overlooking Kampala Road glanced out the window and recalled: "For a few months before and after [the Commonwealth summit], this stretch looked like a modern city. Now ..." he said, gesturing to the wilted landscaping, cracked pavement and burned-out street lamps.

But when asked why he and fellow Ugandans don't channel their disgust into peaceful demonstrations, he insists there is not the political space to do so, as if freedom of expression is as risky as it was during the 1970s under the notorious Idi Amin.

In fact, however, none of the pothole "activists" was arrested for the fishing stunt in June. But since then, little of note has happened either to intensify the protest or to actually repair the roads.

Boda-boda driver Wandera, for his part, is tired of waiting. He's finishing a motor vehicle maintenance course and will soon start a new career as a mechanic. "No more driving through them," he says. "I'll make money fixing cars damaged by potholes."