OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT: Uganda Railways Is Rotten From Top To Bottom — Here Is The Proof as an Insider
New Uganda Railways Locomotives
Your Excellency,
Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) continues to receive government support and renewed attention as part of Uganda’s transport and economic transformation agenda. I appreciate the government’s commitment to reviving railway transport because of its importance to trade, industrialisation and national development.
However, as someone concerned about what is happening inside the corporation, I must honestly say that Uganda Railways is rotting from top to bottom. Beneath the promises of railway revival lies an institution struggling with questionable management practices, favouritism, wasteful decisions and the gradual destruction of the technical expertise that once made it function.
I believe that unless these problems are confronted head-on, no amount of government investment will deliver the railway revival Ugandans deserve.
Allow me to explain what I see as some of the most disturbing issues.
FOREIGN TRIPS HAVE BECOME A PRESERVE OF MANAGEMENT AND THE BOARD
Your Excellency, I am particularly disturbed by the way foreign trips and technical benchmarking visits are handled at Uganda Railways.
Whenever there are international technical visits, conferences or benchmarking exercises, it is almost always management and members of the Board who travel. The technicians from the wagon and locomotive sections — the very people who understand the engineering realities of railway operations — are left behind.
I find this difficult to understand.
Some of the current Board members and senior managers are relatively new to the railway industry. Some can hardly explain the practical difference between a wagon and a dead locomotive, yet they are the ones representing Uganda on technical missions abroad while the people with hands-on experience remain at home.
What exactly are we benchmarking when the people expected to apply the technical knowledge are excluded?
I strongly believe that foreign technical visits should prioritise the engineers, technicians and experienced railway personnel who actually understand the systems. Otherwise, these trips risk becoming expensive management excursions rather than meaningful capacity-building exercises.
RECRUITMENT HAS BECOME A GAME OF CONNECTIONS
Your Excellency, another issue that is deeply frustrating is recruitment.
From what I see and hear within the corporation, employment opportunities have increasingly become the preserve of a few connected individuals. There is a widespread perception among staff that recruitment slots are shared among insiders.
In some cases, people reportedly know who will get the jobs even before interviews are conducted.
Take the eight advertised positions under Grades RG6 and RG7 in Civil Engineering. I have serious concerns that these positions may already have been earmarked for favourites connected to certain managers. The impression among some employees is that the slots are shared among those who have the right connections and those who know how to please influential individuals.
If this is allowed to continue, what happens to qualified Ugandans who apply believing that they have an equal opportunity?
I am equally concerned about the recruitment and deployment of some individuals as level-crossing guards. There are allegations that certain recruits lack the discipline and commitment required for such sensitive assignments. Some are reportedly described by colleagues as habitual drunkards and drug users, while others are allegedly rarely found at their designated workstations.
I find this particularly dangerous because level-crossing guards are responsible for public safety. Their absence or negligence can expose motorists, pedestrians and railway users to avoidable accidents.
We cannot claim to be building a modern railway system while compromising the standards of people entrusted with protecting the public.
I believe the entire recruitment process needs an independent audit, and anyone found to have manipulated appointments should be held accountable.
3. VALUABLE RAILWAY ASSETS ARE BEING DESTROYED IN THE NAME OF SCRAP
Your Excellency, this is perhaps the issue that pains me most.
I am deeply troubled by what appears to be the continued disposal of valuable railway assets as scrap metal instead of repairing, refurbishing or repurposing them.
Serviceable wagons, sleepers, rails and imported railway components are allegedly being cut up and sold, yet some of these assets could still serve the corporation if properly assessed and restored.
Why should we destroy what we can repair?
Uganda has done better before. During the 1990s, several wagons were successfully converted to carry containers instead of being discarded. That was practical engineering, and I believe the same approach can still be adopted today.
Management appears to be convinced that the 100 wagons expected through African Development Bank financing will permanently solve the corporation’s wagon shortage. I consider that thinking dangerously shortsighted.
Every wagon requires continuous maintenance. Railway wagons have specialised components that cannot simply be picked up from an ordinary hardware shop. Some components are extremely expensive to manufacture, particularly specialised curved parts.
In some instances, the cost of manufacturing replacements could be many times the value realised from selling the original wagon as scrap.
This is where I question the economic logic behind some of the decisions being made.
Why destroy existing assets, sell them cheaply and later spend enormous amounts of public money procuring replacements?
I am also concerned about the controversies surrounding the procurement of new wagons and the procedures followed in disposing of railway scrap. These matters deserve serious scrutiny.
I want to see a proper independent audit establishing which assets were disposed of, their actual condition, how they were valued, who bought them and whether the corporation obtained value for money.
Uganda Railways cannot afford to throw away potentially useful assets while waiting for new ones to arrive.
RAILWAY ENGINEERING CANNOT BE LEARNT FROM TEXTBOOKS ALONE
Your Excellency, I want to emphasise something that I believe today’s railway leadership needs to understand: railway engineering is a specialised profession that requires practical experience.
For decades, Uganda Railways trained its own personnel. Engineers and technicians learnt the practical aspects of railway operations from experienced railway men who understood locomotives, wagon fittings, track maintenance and the complicated realities of keeping a railway running.
Whether someone graduated from Harvard, Oxford or any other prestigious university, they still had to learn the practical side of railway engineering from experienced professionals.
Some of those old railway men may not have had advanced academic qualifications, but their understanding of railway operations was extraordinary.
Unfortunately, I believe we are gradually losing that institutional memory.
Today, we have engineers with impressive academic qualifications and excellent English-speaking abilities, but some lack the hands-on railway engineering skills that the job demands.
Instead of concentrating on engineering, some appear to have become more interested in procurement and deal-making than the technical work for which they were employed.
This is not the kind of engineering culture that built Uganda Railways.
I strongly believe that the experienced railway men who were sent back to the villages during restructuring should be considered for re-engagement, particularly those with specialised knowledge in critical departments such as PWI and CXR.
These are people who understand the railway from the ground up. Their knowledge cannot simply be replaced by employing fresh graduates or importing new equipment.
Why can’t we bring these experienced men back as technical advisers, trainers and mentors?
Let them transfer their knowledge to the younger generation. Let them teach the new engineers what they learnt through decades of practical experience.
The day today’s engineers humble themselves and embrace the knowledge of these experienced railway hands is the day we shall begin seeing genuine recovery.
Otherwise, we shall continue pretending that everything is fine as the institution steadily goes to the dogs.
YOUR EXCELLENCY, THE RAILWAY NEEDS AN INTERNAL CLEAN-UP
Your Excellency, I am not writing this letter because I oppose the government’s railway revival programme. On the contrary, I want it to succeed.
I am writing because I believe the problems inside Uganda Railways must be confronted before more public money is committed to projects that may not deliver the expected results.
I appeal to you to direct an independent investigation into the following:
- The criteria used to select management and Board members for foreign trips, and why technical personnel are routinely excluded.
- The recruitment process, particularly the eight advertised Civil Engineering positions under Grades RG6 and RG7.
- The disposal of wagons, sleepers, rails and imported railway components as scrap.
- The procurement of new wagons and whether the corporation is obtaining value for money.
- The technical competence of personnel in critical engineering departments.
- The deployment, attendance and professional conduct of level-crossing guards.
- The possibility of re-engaging experienced railway personnel who were discarded during previous restructuring exercises.
Your Excellency, I believe Uganda Railways has a future, but that future cannot be secured through new wagons and government funding alone.
We need leadership that understands the railway business, recruitment based on merit, proper management of public assets and engineers who can actually do the work.
We must stop confusing academic qualifications with practical competence, foreign travel with technical progress, and procurement activity with railway development.
The first tracks that need repair at Uganda Railways are not made of steel. They are the broken systems of leadership, recruitment, technical capacity and accountability.
Your Excellency, before we spend billions more trying to rebuild the railway outside, let us first repair what is broken inside.
Concerned Citizen.
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