Residents of several sub counties in Lamwo district are blaming poor state of roads in the district to district’s quality of leadership.

 

Acholi Times visited communities in Agoro , Madi-Opei, Paloga, Padibe East , Padibe West, Palabek-Kal and Lokung  sub counties  and the majority accused district officials of awarding themselves tenders and as a result end up doing shoddy work because they keep most of the money to themselves.

Mr Bosco Oling a resident of Potika Parish in Agoro Sub County told Acholi Times that the situation is alarming because district officials are not giving the tender to construct roads to the right people, leaving the roads in a state of disrepair.

Mr Oling who is also the LC3 Councillor for Potika Parish, revealed that tenders that were advertised in the press were just a PR “gimmick”, because district officials award the contracts to themselves.

“It’s we the communities who are suffering because most of the people here are farmers, they need to sell their crops from home, because they cannot access transport, now if the roads are impassable, what do you expect? He said.

He added that the communities are also experiencing difficulties in accessing health facilities because the roads going to the health centres are in such a state that they will inevitably kill the patient.

Ms Alice Akello a vegetable vendor in Padibe town council market told this paper that they get most of the vegetable from Lokung and Agoro sub counties but a good part of their produce is destroyed along the way as they take two to three days at a time, on the roads.

“We are losing a lot, my cabbages valued at over 150,000 shilling perished in transit as the vehicle I was using got stuck on the way,” she said.

Ms Akello added the roads are killing businesses and livelihood because of restriction of movement.

However the LC3 Chairman for Agoro sub county Mr Ben Owali, when contacted told Acholi Times that he does not understand why people are complaining because the roads had been repaired but the problem was that untarmacked roads don’t last. 

Mr Owali said that it’s the duty of the engineering department to select the right constructors to do the job but urged that constructor do shoddy work in those sub counties because it’s difficult to always monitor their work.

“Some of the constructors refuse to avail their documents to us, they see us as people who have no authority and it’s very difficult to monitor them,’ he said.

Added further that all sub county leaders ought to be signatories to road work contracts to ensure proper accountability.

The LCV Chairman for Lamwo district Mr Mathew Akiya Ocen said that every effort is being made to cover the destroyed roads to ease movement in the district.

“As a district, we have already launched the repair of some of the worse roads and other roads will be sorted out as soon as possible,” he said

Mr Akiya added that the residents should calm down as they embark on proper work on the affected roads in the district.

Some of the most affected roads in Lamwo district also include that from Agoro – Paluga, Paluga - Padibe, Padibe - Lokung and Lokung - Palabek sub counties.