Residents of Kisambo-Alimugonza Village in Bwijanga Sub-county, Masindi District, are angry with their political leaders for failing to work on their dilapidated 5km road stretch.
During a community service on the stream at the weekend, the more than 1,000 residents said that the road has become a menace to their lives.
The village chairman, Mr Ronald Aliganyira, said that expectant mothers and school children have felt the greatest pinch of the bad road that connects Kitamba and Kahembe parishes.
“Expectant mothers, new born babies and school going children have either lost their lives or got bodily defects due to the poor condition of the road that snakes through the stream. Residents can’t do much on the soppy road featuring a stream. It needs heavy machinery from the government,” he told our reporter.
Mr Aliganyira said his efforts for the sub-county and district political leadership to have the road worked on have been ignored.
“What is irking us is that government has neglected the road for years. I have approached our sub-county and district leaders to work on the road but in vain. Our leaders have neglected us. They treat us as people who don’t matter,” he said angrily.
The chairman added that during the budget conference, the Bwijanga sub-county authorities assured the residents that the road would be worked on in the next 2020/21 financial year but only to learn that the funds had purportedly been diverted to Bikonzi parish.
Mr David Sunday, another resident told this website that in 2010 he lost his wife and a new born baby because he could not access Bwijanga Health Centre 4 due to the up to now impassable road.
“I lost my wife and a baby 10 years back because I was unable to take them to a health facility given the poor road which until now has never been worked on. Vehicles and motorcycles can’t manouvre through the bad road for one to access health services.”
He added that it is also complicated to access schools and markets leading to increased poor academic performance and augmented poverty in the area.
Ms Monica Kyalisiima, the village vice chairperson, said that children delay starting school because they cannot cross the stream at six years of age since it is dangerous to their lives continuing that “expectant mothers find it hard to access antenatal services and as a result many babies have been born with bodily defects”.
Mr James Otembi, said that in March this year, his brother drowned in the stream as he tried to wade through the swirling water while Mr Fred Musindi, another resident said that his daughter became crippled after being bitten by an unknown water creature as she also walked through the stream.
Contacted for a comment, the Bwijanga Sub-county Speaker, Mr Geoffrey Bagada, said that work on the Kisambo-Alimugonza-Musoma Road is in the Sub-county’s Five-Year Development Plan adding that it will be worked on in the following financial years.
