A section of landlords in Buvuma District has blocked the ongoing repair works on feeder roads, frustrating a project aimed at improving connectivity in the island district, Daily Monitor has established.
In some villages, landlords claim that local authorities created the feeder roads without their consent, yet they pass through privately owned mailo land. The most affected villages are in Lwajje and Bweema sub-counties.
Mr Richard Tunsiime, the Bweema Sub-county chairperson, said they failed to fix roads connecting to many areas, particularly landing sites, because some roads pass through privately owned land.
‘We are facing a lot of challenges when it comes to opening up permanent roads in my sub-county. The landlords are becoming a problem. They have sabotaged many road projects by giving lame excuses. Some say their titles don’t show that roads are passing through their estates,’ he said.
Mr Bernard Ndibalema, the chairperson of Lwajje Sub-county, said one of the landlords at the island sub-county owns titles in two villages, but she does not allow any government programme to be conducted there.
‘I have on several occasions tried to engage her to see how we can work together so that sitting tenants on her land can benefit from government programmes, not only roads, but it was like squeezing water out of a rock. So, we have failed to extend services to our people, like piped water to neighbouring villages, because that is the only route we can use,’ he added.
Mr Jasper Mayega, the Buvuma District engineer, said the action of landlords is hindering development in the district.
‘That tendency of blocking us from maintaining feeder roads by some landlords is mostly in sub-counties like Bweema, where we use a ferry, and it is costly. It is very bad to use taxpayers’ money to transport all the road units, and after reaching the site, they do not do the work as planned,’ he complained
Buvuma District Chairperson Adrian Ddungu said landlords have the right to block projects passing through their land without consent and due compensation.
‘So, what we need to do is to lobby the government to ensure that any project they are funding has a component of compensation,’ he said.
Buvuma has a total of 319km of road network, of which 143km are managed by the district, 98km are community roads, 40km are under the Ministry of Works and Transport, and 38km are under urban councils.
The district has only 1km of tarmac.