Good roads around Kampala are nice, but what about a staircase to heaven?

This week saw the launch of the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area Urban Development programme, a Shs2.2 trillion plan to rebuild some roads around the capital. The $606 million plan is mostly a loan from the World Bank and AFD, a French lender.

Given the size of the population that lives in Greater Kampala and the area’s contribution to the national economy, it is shameful and self-defeating to have ignored the road network for so long. Nevertheless, we will have failed if, at the end of the project, all we have are a few kilometres of paved road and a lot of debt. If it isn’t too…