Residents of Lweeza village in mukono municipality, have constructed a bridge worth, One hundred million Uganda shillings, they raised the money door to door in their bulungi bwansi campaign, (Community work).
The bridge which is located along Kame stream was washed away by the rains last year, since then motorists have not been using the road to access their homes at Lweza, Dandira and Namumira Villages.
For over a year the residents have been crying out to the Mukono municipality leaders to reconstruct the bridge, but the office of the town clerk could not respond but to give excuses of lack of funds and this annoyed the residents.
The locals said that it has been very difficult for them to access their homes, they have been spending a lot of money by using other routes to the village spending between 5000 to 6000 per day on transport fares.
These commended the contribution made by the son of the soil professor Charles Ntambi of Oxford university that without his efforts may be the work would have stopped along the way.
The Lweeza Village chairman Joachim Ssendi explained that they have been very challenged to cross the Kame stream especially during the rainy season, Ssendi noted that this place has also been a security threat as wrong doers have been grabbing people’s belongings.
The construction of this bridge has faced challenges for example the municipality authorities at one time tried to stop the construction saying that it was illegal based on the letter written by the deputy town clerk Majerani Lubwoyera but the plot was failed by the politicians.
Amongst the people who pledged contribution was Mukono municipality MP Betty Nambooze, after a failed pledge of 20 million, Nambooze told Ugandans that the government is in a financial crisis and gave an example of various projects including roads and other pending projects that are still awaiting funding from the governments that are not available at the moment.
However, she praised the determination of the residents who decided to raise funds for the construction of the road and not allowing intimidation from municipality officials to distract them.
“The village of Lweza has made history that people can come together and do something good amidst the challenges of politicians who have been writing letters stopping the project, I thank you for not giving up and I ask other communities to learn from us” Said Nambooze
The construction team led by the legislators Husband Engineer Henry Bakireke said the road is expected to last for more than 50 years due to the quality materials used and urged them to avoid doing anything that could weaken it before it is completed including dumping garbage, dumping soil, burning garbage on it and so on.
