About 70 members of Katuna business community have petitioned the State minister of Planning, Mr David Bahati, over the planned diversion of trailers and trucks heading to Rwanda to the Ntungamo-Mirama Hills route.
The traders through the Katuna Town Council allege that the change of route from Katuna to Ntungamo-Mirama Hill will affect many of their businesses and therefore want Mr Bahati to intervene.

They claim that they were reliably informed that Trade Mark East Africa meeting in Kigali, on May 25 attended by Uganda and Rwanda revenue authority officials resolved that all trucks heading to Rwanda must pass through Mirama Hills border following the collapse of a section of the Katuna road.
The town council mayor, Mr Nelson Nshangabasheija, on Tuesday said some officials who attended the meeting conveyed the message to the traders and local leaders.

The directive
According to Mr Nshangabasheija, the resolution was supposed to take effect seven days from May 25.
“The diversion of all the trucks from Katuna to Mirama Hills Border Post is in bad faith. It is aimed at killing the booming business at Katuna, especially now that the border operates 24 hours,” Mr Nshangabasheija said.

He added: “We shall lose revenue from local communities selling agricultural products, facilities such as lodges and hotels, forex bureaus among others because they will have no business. We appeal to government to overrule the directive for the good of the people.”
According to local leaders, at least 300 vehicles use the Katuna route daily because it is shorter compared to the Mirama Hills road.
Mr Moses Kato, a truck driver, says using MiramaHills route will be very expensive.

“From Ntungamo to Kigali through Miram Hills Border Post it is about 230Km while Ntugamo to Kigali through Katuna is just 153Kms,” he says.
Adding: “With the Mirama hills route we shall use more fuel and spend more time to reach Kigali which is an extra expense. As a seasoned driver of long route trucks I appeal to the authorities to reverse the directive.”

The URA supervisor for Katuna and Mirama border posts, Mr Daniel Karumuzo, however, said he was not aware of the directive.
“I just heard that rumour from the traders. There is no any directive from our offices to divert the trucks to use the Mirama hills border post. As far as we are concerned business is normal as usual,” Mr Karimuzo said.
But Mr Bahati on Tuesday said the diversion was temporary due to the poor shape of the road. “I have been told that the diversion is just a temporary measure because of the collapsed section of the Kabale- Katuna-Kigali road. We appeal to traders to traders to stay calm,” Mr Bahati said.

Poor shape
A section of the Kabale-Katuna Road at Kanyanjoka village Kakyerere Ward on May 18 collapsed after a down pour.
A week earlier, sections of Katuna-Kigali road (4Km from Katuna) had collapsed. The damaged sections have since been fixed, and according to Mr Karumuzo, motorists have resumed using the roads.
The Uganda National Roads Authority station engineer for Kabale, Mr Augustine Kabanda, said though they have managed to fix the damaged road section by compacting the murrum, they are still studying the ground and oil behavior before they can tarmac it.

Source: Daily Monitor