President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has pledged government intervention on major roads in the Greater Ankole region while urging residents not to use poor road infrastructure as an excuse for remaining in poverty.
Museveni made the remarks during a thanksgiving ceremony for Internal Affairs Minister Ephraim Kamuntu in Sheema District on Saturday, October 24, where he outlined proposed road projects expected to improve connectivity across the region.
The President said the government would work on the roads but challenged households to prioritise wealth creation through commercial production rather than wait for infrastructure improvements before engaging in income-generating activities.
“We are going to work on these roads but don’t give an excuse of having no tarmac roads for remaining poor. Chase poverty and tarmac will find you liberated from poverty,” Museveni said.
Among the roads identified by the President is the proposed Bwizibwera–Nyakambu–Nsiika–Nyakashaka–Nyakabirizi corridor, estimated at approximately 92 kilometres, including a spur to Kabwohe.
He also cited the Mbarara–Ishaka highway, a roughly 59-kilometre stretch earmarked for rehabilitation, as well as the route connecting Kabwohe, Bugongi, Kitagata and Kabira towards Rukungiri through Kashenshero, Ruhinda and Mitooma.
The proposed projects are expected to improve transport links across parts of the Ankole sub-region, potentially reducing the cost of moving agricultural produce and improving access to markets and public services.
However, Museveni did not announce specific commencement dates for the proposed works during the ceremony.
The Mbarara–Ishaka road is listed in the National Planning Authority’s Fourth National Development Plan for the 2025/26–2029/30 period, although its status was recorded as pre-feasibility in the plan. The listing does not confirm that construction has started.
The President argued that better roads alone would not guarantee economic prosperity, pointing to communities along established highways where some residents continued to struggle financially.
“Chase poverty, tarmac will find you. In 1963, Kamuntu and I witnessed the Kabale-Kampala highway construction, but we still have people along these roads that are still poor. That is paganism,” Museveni said.
He encouraged residents to embrace commercial agriculture and make use of government wealth-creation programmes, including the Parish Development Model (PDM) and Emyooga, to increase household incomes.
Museveni also urged farmers to adopt irrigation, improve pasture management and use fertilisers to raise agricultural productivity and protect their livelihoods against drought.
He emphasised the need for households to take practical steps towards improving their economic circumstances, warning that poverty continued to affect people’s lives.
“Someone making 64 years of age and they have never achieved something tangible, is a real disaster. Poverty kills, people die because of poverty,” he said.
The road pledges come amid concerns about the condition of transport infrastructure in western Uganda, where poor roads can increase travel times and the cost of transporting agricultural produce.
For communities along the proposed road corridors, the President’s remarks have renewed expectations of government intervention. However, the absence of specific construction timelines leaves uncertainty over when the projects will move from planning and pledges to actual works.
Residents and local leaders will now be looking to the Ministry of Works and Transport for further details on project preparation, funding and implementation.
