{UAH} INSIDE M7’S NEW KITALYA PRISON THAT COST TAXPAYER SHS25BN

By Mulengera Reporters

We recently published a story about Kitalya Mini-Maximum prison which the GoU is finalizing 47kms outside Kampala. It's located at Kitalya Wakiso district along Mityana Road. We have since established several things including the fact that the long-term objective is to have Kitalya serve as the alternative prison (since Luzira is overwhelmed) for long term inmates whose jail sentences range between 20 and 100 years. Costing close to Shs25bn, the facility is being constructed through the JLOS project that seeks to capacitate agencies involved in the Justice Law & Order Sector so that citizens are ultimately served better. The facility's completion and unveiling early next year will reduce on overreliance on colonial-era Luzira Maximum Prison in Nakawa Division.

Commissioner General of Prisons (CGP) Dr. Johnson Byabashaija has been thickly involved in the Kitalya Mini-Maximum project which donors hope will be a model of excellence when it comes to prisoners' proper treatment 

The original idea was for Kitalya to handle a capacity of 4,000 inmates at a time but that was abandoned in favor of 2,000 inmates because of financial resource constraints. The facility will (besides availing additional capabilities to keep convicted prisoners), also enable the GoU to enhance its compliance to international standards when it comes to respecting prisoner rights. It has facilities that ensure comprehensive observance of human rights of the inmates to be caged there.

Senior government sources say the construction has cost the Museveni government Shs21,170,394,696 so far with another balance of about Shs4bn yet to be paid to Ambitious Construction Company Ltd once the ongoing final touches on the site are completed. Sources close to the project say the Commissioner General of Prisons Dr. Johnson Byabashaija (being the user department) is the man who keenly has been supervising the works progress and subsequently updating peers in the JLOS sector.

President Museveni always gives overall leadership for such projects to be undertaken. It for instance takes his prompting for the Finance Ministry technocrats to prioritize funding for such mega construction projects 

 

At the start of the project conceptualization in late 2015, a lot of benchmarking was done on Luzira Upper Prison and also Maximum-Security Prisons for both South Africa and Botswana where Ugandan delegations travelled. Along the way, MPs on the Defense & Internal Affairs Committee bought in and they have regularly been making field visits to check on the progress. On learning that Uganda was secretly building such a huge prison facility near its capital, the Ethiopian government (which also commonly suffers political riots) has been sending its own officials to benchmark on the same. The last such benchmarking visit was made on 6th May 2019 when CGP Byabashaija hosted his Ethiopian counterpart.

Kitalya sits on the very fertile piece of land in the Central part of Uganda 

  

PROFILING KITALYA;

Sitting on hundreds of acres of government land, the Kitalya Mini-Maximum prison comprises of a high-rise perimeter wall fence which is secured with over 70 CCTV camera points. There are many other cameras inside the facility besides the 70 stationed to secure its exterior characterized and complimented by well-paved solid boundary walls, chain link fencing, storm water drainage channels, driveways, walkways, expansive courtyards and a huge parking yard. More to that are the numerous play grounds, sitting platforms/concrete benches as part of the exterior, wells and pump houses.

Kitalya Mini-Maximum prison is comprised of several blocks 

     

And to achieve high levels of environmental compliance as part of the cross-cutting issues (which NPA requires must be complied with by all government MDAs), a lot has been invested in grassing the compound and planting vast quantities of trees for beautification. Also, easily visible in place is the 130.76 cubic meters high-pressed steel-paneled water tank.

Construction effectively began in June 2016 and was to last just 36 months because of the urgency with which government wanted the pompous prison facility in place. This meant that the contractor and consultant (PlantekLimited) were to hand over the job to Uganda Prisons in June 2019 which never happened. Whereas the job is largely on schedule (with averagely over 95% of everything being completed), the contractor recently asked for additional 4 months to finally hand over on 19th December 2019 (this very year). And gratefully this extension won't cost the GoU even a penny; it's totally free of charge to enable the contractor adequately complete everything. This simply means that President Museveni will by all means January next year be driving to Kitalya to commission the new detention and complex whose physical size and vastness by far exceeds Luzira whose maximum prisoner-holding capacity is ideally less than 700 inmates.

Inspection visits have been many by numerous stakeholders who have interest in seeing Kitalya Mini-Maximum prison delivered on time 

               

WHAT'S INSIDE;

Besides the CCTV cameras and the beautiful exterior, the other things into which the taxpayers' Shs25bn has been sunk include; an administration block, recreation facilities like play grounds, a sick bay (comprising of TB & MDR TB wards), workshops, a huge modern kitchen area (fitted with 1000KVA transformer & kitchen ward holding 50 inmates at a time) and classrooms for the rehabilitational skilling of the convicted inmates.

Yet that isn't all. There will also be a Multi-Purpose Hall to host public functions & ceremonies, isolation cells (comprising of concrete Louvered Blocks), gate lodges, washing areas, steel window canopies, steel grill doors on ramps, watch towers and high-rise concrete slabs on which 5000 liters water tanks will be mounted. Significant cash has also been spent on extending the chain link fence and thick boundary walls. Some of the very expensive external works undertaken have included installation of 9 rain water-harvesting tanks each holding 24,000 liters of water. There are also several concrete platforms in place as well as a huge pump house to ensure constant water supply to the larger-than-life facility. Also, on site is a 150KVA standby generator.

We now understand why a big-name political leader from Busoga recently (on reading our earlier story) posted on a social media forum lamenting that the Kitalya infrastructure is better than hospitals in her populous sub region 

   

Kitalya Mini-Maximum prison will also be having plenty of internet access in place for the enjoyment of those who will be caged there. This abundant internet provision is consistent with the UN requirement for all global governments to work towards universal access to internet and ICT facilities which CGP Dr. Johnson Byabashaija is prepared to plentifully have in place. Lately several donor and development partner delegations have been to the Kitalya site whereafter they have filed reports back to their respective capitals testifying that the GoU (through the UPS) is accountably doing a very good job so far. There is growing consensus that whoever will be detained there will have their UN-demanded and Constitutionally-guaranteed rights abundantly respected.

TIMELY PAYMENTS

On 11th September 2018, the contractor desired to escalate the works into phase III and an advance of Shs1.787bn was promptly paid to him under certificate no. 013. This was followed by over Shs1bn on 5th November 2018, Shs700m (December 2018), Shs853m (December 2018), Shs801m (February 2019), Shs1.4bn (March 2019), Shs819m (May 2019), Shs826m (July 2019) and the last payment so far was Shs1.245bn made out on 26th September 2019.  And to ensure there is absolute value for every coin spent on the project, the UPS leadership under Dr. Byabashaija (closely working with the JLOS Secretariat) have ensured frequent inspection site visits to compliment on what PlantekLimited (the project consultants) are doing. For instance, Mulengera News has established that between 29th September 2016 and 26th September 2019, twenty high level site meetings have been held. These high-level site meetings have involved representatives from JLOS, UPS, Finance Ministry, Justice Ministry, UHRC, UNICEF, DANIDA, ICRC, Parliament, Internal Affairs Ministry and Judiciary.

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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"

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