By Wabomba Ronnie
BUDUDA
Residents in Bududa District on Thursday, 21st August, 2025 staged demonstrations to express their dissatisfaction with the current state of the 28-kilometer Bubulo-Bududa Circular Road.
They moved in groups wearing T-shirts with messages such as ‘No Road, No Vote’, ‘Tarmac 28 Kilometer Bududa Circular Road’, and ‘Protest Bududa Circular Road’. They marched on the road with banners while singing various songs including ‘If We Die, We Die’, ‘We Are Tired of Lies’, and traditional Imbalu (cultural circumcision) songs.
The protests took place in the morning and afternoon under heavy security deployment by the Field Force Unit (FFU) and regular police officers. Although they were largely peaceful, there were a few incidents where demonstrators blocked roads and planted crops like banana sucks and coco yams on sections of the road which nowadays looks like a garden.
Residents accuse their leaders of failing to lobby for the road’s tarmacking and expressed frustration with President Yoweri Museveni’s government, which they say has made unfulfilled promises of tarmacking the road for decades.
Most sections of the Bubulo-Bududa Circular road are currently cut off and non-motorable, crippling transport, business, and other sectors. The only bridge connecting Bududa District Hospital and the district headquarters collapsed more than a year ago, yet the Ministry of Works and Transport has not repaired it, making access difficult for residents of Bududa and neighboring districts—Manafwa, Namisindwa, and Mbale—who also depend on it.
Bududa is widely known as the food basket for the Bugisu region, Uganda, and even parts of Kenya and South Sudan, with trucks regularly transporting bananas, bogoya, meat, milk, coffee, and other produce from the fertile district. It is also the shortest route to Wagagai Peak, Mount Elgon’s highest point, and boasts tourist attractions such as caves, bullfighting, and top schools like state of the art international school- Hawthorne Scribner High School. However, the poor state of the road has made access to the district difficult, negatively impacting nearly all sectors.
For years, President Museveni and his government have pledged to tarmac the road, yet no action has been taken. Even in his most recent State of the Nation Address the road was mentioned by the head of state as one of those to be tarmacked but the road was shockingly omitted from the 2025–2026 National Budget.
The protest ended with an emergency meeting between the task force leaders and the security heads at the Resident District Commissioner’s office. Bududa DPC Hassan Musooba had earlier warned, on the Bududa Leadership Forum, that the planned demonstrations would be deemed unlawful because the task force had not obtained clearance from the Inspector General of Police (IGP).
“As regards to the intended demonstrations, I want to notify you that we have not received any correspondence from the Inspector General of Police (IGP) clearing the alleged demonstrations. On that background, the gathering will be deemed unlawful. We shall not hesitate to apprehend anyone breaking the law. I implore the task force to first seek authorization from the IGP, then we can guide ourselves on how to proceed with the peaceful demonstration,” said DPC Musooba.
Despite his warning, no arrests were made, though security remained on high alert with heavy deployment.
Mawululu James Patrick, a resident of Busayi in Bududa district, said Bududa residents are justified in demonstrating because the pledge to tarmac the road has been made since 1986 with no results. He argued that residents should even consider refusing to vote for NRM leaders in 2026 if the road is not prioritized to send a big statement because the district has in the past election been voting President and NRM leaders with over 90% votes.
Massa Joseph, chairperson of the Task Force for Tarmacking the Bubulo-Bududa Circular Road, said today’s protest was merely a launch and engaging community but warned that larger demonstrations would follow until the road is completed. He noted that Bududa is the only district in the Bugisu region without any tarmacked road out of all the seven districts in the region, proof that it has been sidelined, neglected and minimized.
“We are not politicians but concerned residents who want to spearhead the demand for the road. Today’s event was peaceful, but if our cry is not heard, even violent protests will follow. Bududa has the same topography as the Sebei region, but Sebei benefits greatly from its tarmacked roads. The only thing we demand is for the President to fulfill his long-standing pledge,” Massa told residents.
