坎帕拉：亟待转型的城市

坎帕拉是乌干达的首都，位于国家的中心位置，是乌干达的政治、经济中心。坎帕拉的国内生产总值占乌干达的60％左右。

坎帕拉毗邻维多利亚湖，位于富饶的农业腹地中心，这无疑有助于其经济增长——推动投资、工业化、移民、基础设施建设和就业。

但经过多年缓慢的战略性增长，坎帕拉将进行结构转型。城市迫切需要改善连通性和城市整体基础设施建设，以提高效率和宜居性。

亟待改善的交通基础设施

在成为中等收入城市的愿景中，负责管理该市的政府机构——坎帕拉城市管理局（KCCA）已经开展了建设轻轨系统、缆车和立交桥的可行性研究，作为解决交通拥堵问题的潜在方案。

“我们正在寻找解决拥堵问题的多管齐下的方法。我们希望居民或游客能够轻轻松松地进入坎帕拉。”坎帕拉城市管理局发言人Peter Kaujju表示。

目前，坎帕拉的交通基础设施还保留着殖民地时期设计的单车道公路。由于人口激增，它们越发显得狭窄，因而在高峰时段，人们总是深受交通堵塞之苦。

据世界银行估算，坎帕拉每天24,000通勤者每人有一个小时堵在路上，这严重影响了城市的生产能力。马克雷雷大学城市规划专家和讲师Amanda Ngabirano表示，坎帕拉市当局必须迅速找到解决拥堵的办法，因为它限制了经济增长，并影响了坎帕拉居民和游客的社会福祉。

“最近的交通堵塞是如此糟糕，以至于儿童和家庭都受到了影响。对于大多数家庭来说，从家到学校，短短12公里的距离，除非他们在早上5点之前离开家，否则在30分钟内到达是不可能的。这意味着我们的孩子必须在4:30左右起来。到了晚上，他们最有可能在路上花费很长时间才能到家，然后上床睡觉。这逼得孩子无法享受应有的童年。”Amanda Ngabirano说。

自2017年以来，乌干达糟糕的铁路系统引入了一项客运业务。早上发火车将乘客从市中心运送到距离大约14公里外的那曼维，晚上再运回。“但这项服务并不可靠。这是一个很好的替代拥堵的公路运输的方式，但你不能每天都指望火车。很可能今天有火车，明天就没有了。他们真应该保持定期的服务。”乘坐过这趟火车的Emmanuel Mutebi说。

乌干达政府目前也在扩建北绕城高速路，这是一条环绕坎帕拉东部和北部边缘的主要环形公路，计划建有四车道。该计划旨在避免从东部运载工业产品的重型车辆穿过市中心。

“目标是缓解市中心的交通压力，这样，如果一个人从东部开往哥鲁（乌干达北部），他就不必穿过市中心，而是选择北绕城高速绕行前往目的地。”Kaujju说。

但坎帕拉仍未投资建立一个高效的公共交通系统。私人拥有的14座小型巴士（当地称为“Kamunye”），它和“boda boda”（摩托出租车）是坎帕拉公共交通的代表。他们因经常超载和收费过高而臭名昭著。由于经常发生事故，医务工作者将摩托出租车认定为公共卫生危害。

“坎帕拉必须得到国家政府的支持，以建立有效的公共交通设施，因为机动化正在稳步增长，而我们所谓的公共交通的质量根本没有得到应有的关注。同时，应该更多地关注乌干达其他城镇的发展，增加更多投入，因为从长远看，这样不仅仅能够发展这些城镇，还能够缓解坎帕拉的压力。”Ngabirano说。

去年10月，坎帕拉城市管理局公布了多模型城市交通总体规划，这是坎帕拉基础设施和机构发展项目（KIIDP）第二阶段的一部分。这项为期五年，由世界银行资助的总投资1.837亿美元的项目，旨在逐步用公共汽车、轻轨和缆车替代“boda boda”（摩托出租车）。

政府规划应更多关注贫困人口

坎帕拉是一个贫富差距明显的城市。在许多地区，富人通过设有铁钩网的高围墙和监控设施隔离其弱势邻居。

多年来不受控制地迁移到坎帕拉，又处于失业状态的一类人，他们大多靠打零工、赌博，有时还以犯罪为生。由于收入微薄，这些人生活在没有基础设施的凌乱、肮脏的定居点。

“在社交方面，由于缺乏像样的公园、公共交通、步行设施和其他社区社会服务，不同的社会阶层之间互动的机会很少，他们之间的阶层划分相当明显，而且有越来越强烈的趋势。”Amanda Ngabirano说。

自2011年以来，该市先后推出了一系列结构和体制改革，以提高效率。改革带来了更为严格的贸易许可规则、更多税收，并且打击非法建筑、市场和路边商贩。

这些措施主要影响了坎帕拉大部分贫困人口就业的非正规行业部门。“感觉这个城市不想要它们，希望通过高压措施迫使这些非正规行业部门难以继续，最终离开这个城市。”代表坎帕拉中心区的议员穆罕默德·恩塞雷科说。
还有土地权问题。随着坎帕拉的现代化进程深化，土地掠夺和驱逐的案例有所增加。缺乏对贫困土地所有者的保护以及薄弱的土地法律，使得非正规住区居民经常听任大型开发商的摆布。2018年年中，生活在坎帕拉北部的Lusanja社区中的300多个家庭被一名开发商驱逐，该开发商声称他已购买了这块土地所有权。一群律师自愿对驱逐令提出上诉，但最终该驱逐案以这些家庭被判露宿街头而告终。

像这样的问题让许多人想知道他们在这个城市的地位和目的是什么。

“他们关心的只是大型购物中心。我们也需要有地方工作。我们负担不起商场的租金，我们也需要活下去。”做过路边摊贩的Robert Ssempijja说。

专家认为，为了解决社会鸿沟，该市必须在其决策和计划中为贫困人口做好安排。Ngabirano说，贫困社区的医疗、教育、免疫和自来水等服务设施可以帮助解决排外感。 “其他措施不属于空间规划范畴，但也可以解决我们这座城市的问题。例如教育标准化；破除那些迫使父母远离家乡15公里远的明显质量差异。”她补充说，“改变态度也会让坎帕拉变得更加友好。”

规划制定仍是个难题

2010年，乌干达政府开始管理坎帕拉，旨在使城市更高效、有序，同时提高其治理能力。坎帕拉城市管理局法案将坎帕拉从一个普通的地方政府实体提升到由中央政府管理的顶级城市。

因为已经预料到大都市规划的难度，该法案包括了建立大坎帕拉都市规划局相关条款，这意味着它将形成未来整体大都市当局的基础。但是，在该法案通过近十年的今天，大都市当局都还未成立。专家说，该局的延迟建立造成了无法纠正的计划混乱。

“在大坎帕拉，我们正在经历的城市化工程是巨大的，不幸的是，其质量很差。事实上，这种情况正在全国范围内逐步扩大，我们看到土地完全流失，当然还有无序的发展。”城市规划专家Amanda Ngabirano表示，这座城市的增长速度太快，快到规划人员无法预期应对这些增长。

中国企业的商机

坎帕拉坐落在非洲中部和东部的交汇处，它从东非海岸向内陆蜿蜒而行，正处于新丝绸之路的中心地带。由于其战略位置，由东非共同体主导建设的北部和中部走廊预计将贯穿坎帕拉，这将极大地增加坎帕拉的交通便利程度。预计“一带一路”倡议将以冷战结束以来前所未有的规模改变世界城市，坎帕拉也不例外。

坎帕拉为希望投资乌干达的中国企业提供了巨大的机会。这座城市已经准备好迎接大型基础设施建设项目，建筑行业的中国公司可以率先建设道路、立交桥和轻轨系统。

中国交通建设公司已经参与了一个在主要交叉路口翻新和扩建道路的项目，这是世界银行资助的一项旨在缓解坎帕拉交通流量的项目的一部分。

2017年6月，乌干达总统约韦里·穆塞韦尼与中国投资者签署了一份谅解备忘录，以建设该市的快速公交系统。

坎帕拉目前已开始解决城市犯罪问题，中国安全行业企业可以提供街道监控设备和中央监控摄像系统。电信设备制造商华为已向坎帕拉城市管理局捐赠了闭路电视摄像设备。

制造业、陶瓷业和食品加工业的公司已经在位于坎帕拉大都会的卡贝卡的纳曼维、天堂-穆科诺和辽沈工业园区开设了商铺。

英文版

Kampala:  in the process of structural transformation

By Ronald Kato For China Investment  Journalist of Africa News in Uganda   Photos by Ronald Kato

Located in the centre of the country, Kampala is Uganda’s capital. It is also the seat of the government and the country’s economic capital. Kampala generates about 60% of Uganda’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Kampala’s location on the shores of Lake Victoria and in the centre of a rich agricultural hinterland has aided its growth- driving investment, industrialization, migration, infrastructure and jobs.

But after years of little strategic growth, Kampala is due for structural transformation. The city needs to urgently improve connectivity and overall urban infrastructure to become more efficient and livable.

Improve transport infrastructure

In its vision to become a middle income city, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), the government agency in charge of administering the city has undertaken feasibility studies for a light rail system, cable cars and flyovers as potential solutions to traffic jams.

“We are looking for a multi-pronged approach to solve congestion. We want people- residents or visitors to access Kampala with ease”, said Peter Kaujju, the Kampala Capital City Authority spokesman.

For now, Kampala’s transport infrastructure is only made up of single lane roads designed during the colonial times. Because of a population boom, they have become notoriously small and are always clogged by traffic during rush hours.

The World Bank estimates that a staggering 24,000 person-hours are lost every day by people sitting in traffic jams, seriously draining the productive capacity of the city.

Amanda Ngabirano, an urban planning expert and a lecturer at Makerere University says the city’s authorities must find solutions to congestion fast as it is constraining growth and affecting the social wellbeing of Kampala’s residents and visitors.

“The traffic congestion these days is so bad that children and families are feeling the impact. For most families, to cover a distance of 12 Km from home to school, in 30 minutes is becoming impossible unless they leave home before 5 Am.  This implies that our children have to wake up at about 4:30. In the evening, they are most likely to spend so much time in traffic that they arrive home asleep. Children aren’t being allowed to be children”, she said.

The country’s ailing railway service has since 2017 introduced a passenger service. The morning and evening trains carry passengers from the city centre to Namanve, about 14km away and back.

“But the service is not reliable. It is a good alternative to gridlocked roads but you can’t count on the trains every day. Today there is a train, tomorrow there isn’t. They should maintain a regular service”, said Emmanuel Mutebi, who has used the train service.

Uganda’s government is expanding The Northern Bypass, a major ring road that skirts the eastern and northern fringes of Kampala to have four lanes. The plan is to rid the city centre of heavy vehicles carrying industrial goods from the east.

“The goal is to decongest the city centre so that if one is driving from the east to Gulu [northern Uganda] they don’t have to go through the city centre to connect but rather take the [Northern] bypass to proceed to their destination”, said Kaujju of Kampala Capital City Authority.

Kampala still has not invested in an efficient public transportation system. Privately owned 14 seater minibuses locally known as ‘Kamunye’ and boda boda [motor cycle taxis] are the trademark of Kampala’s public transportation. They are notorious for overloading, and charging exorbitant fees. The motor cycle taxis have been designated a public health hazard by medical workers due to proneness to accidents.

“The city must be supported by the national government to get an efficient public transport system, as motorization is steadily increasing, while the quality of what we call public transport isn’t attractive at all. Other Ugandan towns should be given maximum attention and investments redirected there, which in the long run will not only see them develop as desired but also relieve this city”, asserts Ngabirano.

In October last year, KCCA unveiled the Multi-Model Urban Transport Master Plan, part of the second phase of the Kampala Institutional and Infrastructural Development Project (KIIDP). The five-year $183.7m (Shs693b) World Bank-funded project is intended to phase out boda bodas (motorcycle taxis) from Kampala and replace them with buses, light trains and cable cars.

For the rich and the poor

Kampala is a city of stark contrasts. In many areas, rich neighborhoods are separated from their disadvantaged neighbors by high perimeter walls, complete with barbed wire and CCTV surveillance.

Years of unchecked migration into the city and unemployment has a class of Kampalans that mostly survives on odd jobs, gambling and sometimes crime. Because of their meagre incomes, these live in unplanned, squalid settlements without infrastructure.

“Socially, there are minimal opportunities for the different social classes to interact due to the lack of such facilities as decent public parks, decent public transport, decent walking facilities, and other community/social services. The divide is rather clear and getting stronger.” said Amanda Ngabirano.

Since 2011, the city has introduced a series of structural and institutional reforms in order to be more efficient. The reforms have come along with stricter trade licensing rules, more taxes, crackdowns on illegal structures, markets and roadside vending.

These have mostly affected the informal sector where most of Kampala’s poor work.

“There is a feeling that the city does not want them. That it wants to kick them out by making life too hard for the informal sector”, said Muhammad Nsereko, a member of parliament representing Kampala’s central district.
There is also the issue of land rights. As Kampala modernizes, cases of land grabbing and evictions have increased. The absence of protections for poor land owners, and weak land laws has left informal settlements at the mercy of big developers. In mid 2018, Lusanja, a suburb of over 300 families located in the north of Kampala was evicted by a developer who claimed he had bought the land from its owner. A group of lawyers volunteered to appeal the eviction order but after it had been executed with families sleeping in the open.

Issues like these have left many wondering about their place and purpose in the city.

“All they care about is big malls. We too need a place to work. We cannot afford to pay rent in the malls. We also need to live”, said Robert Ssempijja, a former roadside vendor.

Experts argue that to address the social divide, the city has to make provisions for its poor population in its decisions and plans. Ngabirano says that services such as healthcare, education, immunization and piped water in poor neighborhoods can help address the feeling of exclusion. “Other measures are outside the realm of spatial planning but could relieve our city. For instance standardisation of education; and break those glaring differences in quality that push parents 15+Km away from home. Also investing in attitude change would see Kampala become more visitor friendly”, she adds.

Planning remains a challenge

In 2010, the Ugandan government took charge of the administration of Kampala in a bid to make the city more efficient, organized and to improve its governance. The Kampala Capital City Authority Act elevated Kampala from being an ordinary local government entity to a top tier city run by the central government.

The challenge of metropolitan planning was already anticipated and so the act included the provision for the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Planning Authority (GKMPA) that is ultimately meant to form the foundation for a future overall Metropolitan Authority.But almost ten years after the law was passed, the metropolitan authority is yet to be constituted. Experts say that the delayed constitution of the body has produced a planning mess which will be impossible to correct.

“In Greater Kampala, the urbanization we are experiencing is immense but of poor quality, unfortunately. In fact this is spreading steadily throughout the country, where we are seeing total wastage of land and of course disorganised development. The city is growing rather too fast for planners to cope with the developments as expected”, said Amanda Ngabirano, an urban planning expert.

Immense opportunities for Chinese companies

Sitting at the intersection of Central and eastern Africa, Kampala sits at the heart of the New Silk Road as it snakes inland from the east African coast. Due to its strategic location, both the northern and the central corridors, two ambitious connectivity projects by the East African Community are envisaged to run through Kampala, these will greatly increase the convenience of Kampala. The Belt and road Initiative is projected to transform world cities on a scale never seen before since the end of the cold war and Kampala will be no exception.

Kampala presents immense opportunities for Chinese companies looking to invest in Uganda. As the city readies for mega infrastructure projects, Chinese companies in the construction sector can take the leading in building roads, flyovers and a light train system.

China Communications construction Company (CCCC) has already been involved in a project to refurbish and expand roads at major intersections, part of a World Bank funded project to ease traffic flow in Kampala.
In June 2017, Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a consortium of Chinese investors to implement the city’s Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS).

As Kampala moves to tackle urban crime, Chinese companies in the security sector can supply street surveillance equipment and CCTV cameras. Telecommunication equipment maker, Huawei, has made a CCTV camera equipment donation to KCCA.

Companies in manufacturing, ceramics and food processing have already set up shop in the Namanve, Tian Tang-Mukono and the Liao Shen industrial parks in Kapeeka in metropolitan Kampala.