{UAH} Pojim/WBK: In 2016, I don’t want to design rockets, I want to build houses - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/In-2016-I-don-t-want-to-design-rockets-I-want-to-build-houses/-/434750/3019500/-/qaoyah/-/index.html

In 2016, I don't want to design rockets, I want to build houses

If you wish the Republic of Uganda well in 2016, send us one prayer — that our managers start getting their priorities right.

While aspiring to make breakthroughs in cutting edge technology is good, we should not lose the capacity to carry out such basic functions like building shelter for our people.

Ugandans have the baffling tendency of trying to do sophisticated things like designing aircraft (which are yet to fly) and then seeking help from foreign powers to carry out the most mundane of tasks.

One such mundane task is the building of houses. In the past three decades, hardly a year has passed without a major deal being announced with a foreign company or government who are coming in to help Ugandans build low-cost houses. But as yet, no foreign entity has managed to build even a tiny low-cost housing estate. Maybe they realise that 99.99 per cent of Ugandans are already living in low cost houses, so what is the need?

A decade or so ago, we turned over the National Housing and Construction Corporation to the Libyans. NHCC is the statutory body mandated and obligated to build houses for Ugandans. NHCC is yet to give us even a mini-estate of a thousand units since the foreign owner took over.

The public has huge tracts of land all over the country that are controlled by the government so the cost of lands for national housing projects should be in accounting books but should not be charged exorbitantly against nationals as buyers.

We can argue about this forever, but everybody in Uganda knows for instance that all non-private primary schools are built on free land provided by communities. We have watched the government running around looking for an investor to develop a huge tract near Kampala city centre called Naguru whose old houses were condemned a decade ago. Investors from Britain and elsewhere have been courted but the new estate is yet to materialise.

I think the day our leaders decide to launch a satellite into outer space, they will consult a village rainmaker from Karamoja. They seek out foreign powers for the simplest tasks and so, presumably, will hand the sophisticated jobs to the locals.

To develop a modern housing estate, 99 per cent of the requirements are in Uganda. The land is here. All the building materials are here. The architects are here. There are surplus building skills and a dozen Ugandan civil engineers are currently working at Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam for local salaries.

Equally important, the cash for developing the housing estate is right here. From my modest pocket, I am ready to sponsor a bus ticket from Kampala to Nairobi for any government official who is interested in learning how Nairobi's gated communities are funded with money from intending apartment buyers.

So the only components of a modern house that cannot be made readily in Uganda are door locks and electrical fittings, which our traders know how to import.

For the New Year, I recommend that Ugandan leaders look for a documentary called "The Men Who Built America." Rent it for a dollar at your local video shop. It takes about six hours to go through this film but it is worth a year's education, giving insights into how America embarked on the path to becoming a superpower a hundred years ago.

Joachim Buwembo is a Knight International Fellow for development journalism. E-mail: buwembo@gmail.com

In 2016, I don't want to design rockets, I want to build houses - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/In-2016-I-don-t-want-to-design-rockets-I-want-to-build-houses/-/434750/3019500/-/qaoyah/-/index.html

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