Next year, when Uganda hosts some of the 52 matches that will be tucked into the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals programme, the train service from Kampala to Mukono will come under the spotlight. The Mandela National Stadium, expected to seat 64,125 fans after renovation, lies just a few metres off the Jinja-Kampala Highway.
The highway is the undisputed main artery of the capital and has gained notoriety for its gridlocks that are worsened by motorised traffic on the northern corridor.
All pointers are suggestive of the fact that 2027 Afcon match-days will only make a bad situation worse. The passenger operation on the Kampala-Mukono route that the Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) has run the rule over across an extended period is now emerging as a handy solution. But it increasingly looks like the country is far from seeing light at the end of the tunnel.
“We are working with the Ministry of Finance to make sure we can be able to convey the fans going to Namboole. They [the government] have approved Shs23 billion for works and also rehabilitation of the coaches, but then they are saying the money is not there,” Mr Benon M Kajuna, the managing director (MD) of the URC, recently told a Parliament committee.
The outstanding money was also meant to rehabilitate railway operations on the 28km Mukono-Kampala stretch, which forms part of the entire line running to the busy border town of Malaba.
Mr Kajuna, who succeeded Mr David Musoke Bulega as the URC MD in January last year, says the parastatal railway of Uganda operates extremely old passenger coaches and locomotives that will bring shame upon the country during the 2027 Afcon finals.
“Under normal circumstances, a locomotive is supposed to convey about 15 coaches, but we don’t have them. So inevitably, we use one locomotive to convey five coaches. That is underutilisation of the coaches. That means we are using too much fuel to handle this. As if that is not bad enough, you find that one locomotive can’t move the five coaches so we put the second locomotive in case one fails,’ he said.
“We don’t have passenger coaches. The coaches which are there are from the 1970s or 1980s. [They are] very old. They are actually a shame to us. So, we are asking the government to kindly give us money to procure new coaches for the fans for this Afcon. If they can give us the money, we would be able to [prepare for] least for Afcon,’ he added.
A train wreck
In a bid to restore full use of the Uganda Railways, the Government of Uganda (GoU) earmarked $412,863,000 (Shs1.5 trillion) for its parastatal organisation. This includes co-financing of $31,797,700 (Shs118b) (70 percent from the Corporate Internationalisation Fund of Spain and 30 percent as GoU counterpart funding), $200,000 (Shs745m) from the Global Centre for Adaptation (GCA), $79,802,500 (Shs300b) from the GoU counterpart contribution and $300,990,000 (Shs1.1 trillion) from African Development Bank and African Development Fund. But far from easing movement of freight along the northern corridor, and consequently improving trade competitiveness, things have been something of a train wreck.
‘As [the] URC, we face challenges. Cargo moves from Kenya to Malaba, and we don’t have the capacity to convey the goods from Malaba to Kampala. We have been having only two customers because of these constraints-that’s Roofings [Group] and Hima Cement [Limited]. But now customers are coming on board but they are giving us a lot of cargo which we are not able to convey,’ Mr Kajuna disclosed.
Mr Charles Kateeba, a former MD of the URC, says the absence of sufficient skilled workers has many a time derailed the parastatal organisation’s plans.
‘I feel that we need to train a competent team. Unfortunately, [we keep] bringing people from outside and thinking they will run [the URC]. They cannot. They do not have the culture. They don’t have the skills. They don’t have the connections. They don’t have extended relations with sister organisations and that is critical,’ Mr Kateeba shares.
While serving as the URC MD between April 2015 and June 2021, Mr Kateeba green-lit Shs20 billion that was reportedly spent in just a single day to build capacity of staff at the parastatal organisation. The parliamentary committee on physical infrastructure has called the expenditure into question.
‘From 2006 to 2018, Uganda Railways did not run trains. So, they had no skills for running trains. Neither technical nor managerial,’ Mr Kateeba told the committee.
Phantom procurements
The lawmakers on the committee, however, appeared to be unconvinced. It was also brought to light that out of the four pick-up trucks that were to be purchased by the parastatal, at least Shs185 million each, only three were procured. The fourth procurement was established to be a phantom. Mr Philip Bosco Asega, the URC’s Principal Internal Auditor, also conceded that another procurement-this time pound 60,000 (Shs260m) for office furniture-was just as ghostly.
‘Whereas the contract provided, under section miscellaneous expenses, that the project will provide fittings and furniture for the project and this is further budget for the project and this is further budgeted at pound 60,000, the furniture procured was not brought to the attention of the internal audit for witness of delivery in accordance with the treasury instructions,’ Mr Asega told the House Committee on Physical Infrastructure this month.
‘There were no office furniture delivered and witnessed by the internal audit of Uganda Railway Corporation by Consultrans [SAU], who were the service providers for the trainings under the capacity-building project funded by a loan secured from the Government of Spain,’ he added.
pound 35,900 worth of software that the URC indicated in a contract dated June 18, 2020, was purchased from Consultrans [SAU] also maintained a ghostly presence, with other IT equipment also affected, lawmakers on the House committee heard.
‘From the reconciliations and physical checks on the items reported to have been handed over by Consultrans [SAU], we were not able to see 13 items out of the 53 items,’ Mr Agesa stated.
Buffeted by crises at every turn, it remains to be seen whether the URC will be in a position to ease the pain when Uganda co-hosts the 2027 Afcon finals.