Over the last few days road users in Kacyiru woke up to find the ‘CHOGM’ road below the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency headquarters tore up and being revamped anew. Why? Because whoever designed the side road, meant to decongest the main Kacyiru throughway, forgot to add a small roundabout on the street; a roundabout that would allow those coming from Immigration (and the Ministry of Education) to safely turn and proceed downwards towards the UTEXRWA-Kagugu road. I remember using the road and thinking to myself as I tried to navigate the road safely, “why would anyone build the road like this”? So, imagine my relief when I saw on Twitter that the contractors were working on the road again. But that got me thinking about how much waste I’ve personally witnessed. More especially because just a week ago, while driving to Rukumberi village, I was disheartened to find that the main bridge linking Gashora Sector, Bugesera District to Rukumberi Sector, Ngoma District was destroyed once again by rising flood waters. I understand that bridges and other forms of infrastructure can get destroyed by floods, earthquakes and other acts of God. Where I’m left gnashing my teeth in frustration is when the issues are caused by poor planning and more especially, poor execution. The Gashora Bridge I am talking about was first destroyed during the heavy rains of 2020. Instead of rebuilding it to the necessary standard, contractors, under the noses of the Ngoma and Bugesera district authorities as well as infrastructure ministry and RTDA officials, decided to go cheap. First they built a tiny footbridge that could only be used by pedestrians and bicycles. It was destroyed by the next season’s floods. Then they built an earthen temporary bridge. Without enough culverts that bridge was also washed away. Just a few months ago, the engineers at NPD (a local company that won the tender to build the Ramiro-Sake tarmacked road) commenced frantic work on another ‘reinforced’ earthen bridge. This time the new bridge was reinforced with tonnes of stone, laterite and much needed culverts as well. Lo and behold, as soon as the waters in the wetlands started rising again, due to the rainy season we are currently in, the ‘new and improved’ bridge washed away once again. Today, people living in the neighboring Sectors have to either use a rickety boat or drive an hour and a half to get to the other side (a journey that used to take seconds). It is my belief, and the facts bear me out, that people living and visiting the two areas are suffering because of just one reason: those supposed to build a permanent bridge (similar to the one that was built less than a kilometer away over the Akagera River a few years) are simply not doing so. I won’t pretend to know the intricacies of the road construction contract but what I DO know is that every time a makeshift bridge NPD builds is destroyed it costs us, the taxpayers, not only time but also money. Money that we cannot afford to have washed away. Due to, not acts of God, but human error and irresponsibility. The Kacyiru side road and the Gashora Bridge are symptoms of the same disease in my opinion. The disease being bad planning, short term thinking and wasteful public expenditure. I don’t pretend to be an engineer but certain things aren’t rocket science. Certain roads need roundabouts and certain waterways need well-built bridges. To ignore these facts is irresponsible and, in my opinion, a ‘fire-able’ offence. Fire-able because these errors weren’t, in my opinion, due to lack of training but sheer irresponsibility and an ‘I don’t care’ attitude. Something needs to be done and done quickly. We cannot keep taking one step forward and three steps back. I am not a fan of jail time, but this kind of wasteful expenditure, should merit a stint in Mageregere Prison. I think it’s much better for our society as a whole if there is a higher risk of jail time if you participate in wasteful expenditure than if you engage in petty fisticuffs. After all, one affects a few individuals whilst the one affects our entire body politic. The writer is a socio-political commentator
