By ROSE KASIGWA

Members of parliament have decried the country’s poor state of road infrastructure which has increased the numbers of people dying in road accidents calling upon government to provide sufficient funds to complete the pending road works, pay arrears for road infrastructure and compensations among other measures.

During parliament plenary session presided over by the Speaker Annet Anita Among, on august 6, 2025, legislators attributed  the poor road infrastructure to  dilapidated stretches, stalled projects, delayed compensation, and failure by the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) to utilize allocated budgets.

Parliament speaker Anita Among called for measures to be put in place to curb the increasing road carnage. This followed this week’s tragic road accident that happened along the Hoima–Buliisa Road in Kigorobya that left 19 people dead and 13 others nursing injuries.

Among referred to the 2024 Annual Crime Report by the Uganda Police Force, which recorded 25,107 road crashes and 25,808 casualties which are alarming statistics.

In an effort to address the issue of increasing road carnage, Mawogola South Member of Parliament Gorreth Namugga called on government to provide funds for periodic road maintenance.

The Minister for Works and Transport,  Edward Katumba Wamala noted with concern that there is an urgent need to reduce Rehabilitation costs which is  about Shs2.59 billion per kilometer, three times the cost of periodic maintenance adding that if this is not done this may result into the loss of up to Shs180 billion.

Katumba revealed that As of July 2025, 27 road projects; 18 government-funded and nine donor-supported were negatively affected as a result of delays in payments and lack of counterpart funding.

State Minister for Internal Affairs, David Muhoozi, acknowledged serious gaps in road safety enforcement and promised that a combination of methods will be applied to deal with the vice.