Uncompliant Landlords Delay Wakiso GKMA Road Construction Project

Authorities in Wakiso district have embarked on a house-to-house campaign of convincing land owners to surrender parts of their land in which the World Bank funded Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA) without compensation.

According to authorities, there are a number of landlords who have insisted that they need to first get compensated before consenting the project.

However, the leaders are saying, the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between GKMA and the World Bank, the road project has no compensation clause attached, and it is clearly stated that besides physical replacement of property destroyed during the road works, land through which the road is to pass must be voluntarily provided.

As a result, the work has stalled and traders doing business along the Sentema-Bukasa-Kakiri stretch especially those dealing in food stuffs like flour, sugar and those selling ready-to-eat items are on the brink of closure of their businesses owing to the heavy clouds of dust generated by speeding vehicles.

Wakiso Assistant Chief Administrative Officer (ACAO) Betty Nankindu who was found at Lukwanga village on a mission to talk the residents into agreeing, said that although some have consented, they have not signed documents to that effect, yet the World Bank can only give a go-ahead to the work on upon seeing the landlords’ consent forms fully signed.

“We have identified contractors and have gone through some of the formalities but we cannot effectively get started until we finalize this hurdle; the problem is that due to misinformation, land owners think the bank released compensation money and it got diverted somewhere which is not the case,” the ACAO Nankindu said.

She said the residents’ attitude only serves to delay the work, because although not big chunks of their land is going to be eaten as work involves only widening the existing road and not making a new one.

The Senior Community Development Officer (SCDO) Rukia Nakyeyune was however optimistic that all will be well soon as the residents are gradually getting to realize that they need the road, with compensation or no compensation.

She said, “we are on a mission to make locals love and own the road. I believe they will all give us their consent in due course.”

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