Attorney General warns against termination of Kampala-Entebbe Expressway operator

What the report says

Uganda’s Attorney General has warned Parliament against abruptly ending the private operating contract for the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway, saying the government must follow the agreement’s termination process or risk expensive international arbitration. The warning was contained in a legal response presented to legislators by Deputy Attorney General Jackson Karugaba Kafuuzi as Parliament reviewed recommendations from an inquiry into the road’s management, tolling and operations.

The issue centres on the French firm EGIS Road Operation S.A., which was contracted by the Uganda National Roads Authority in 2021 to run and maintain the 25-kilometre expressway. Parliament’s infrastructure committee wants the arrangement ended and toll collection handed to the Ministry of Works and Transport and the Uganda Revenue Authority. But the Attorney General says any breach must first be formally notified, given time to be corrected, and assessed against the contract’s threshold for termination.

The committee had raised concerns about incomplete road-safety systems, lighting, fencing and other operating obligations, as well as a related security contract extension. The legal opinion disputes some of Parliament’s findings, saying the extension was allowed under the original agreement and did not create new expenditure. It also argues that toll collection is legally tied to the roads authority unless the law is changed.

The response instead supports a forensic audit of revenue collection and operating systems to determine whether the state lost money. The dispute highlights a wider tension between accountability for a major debt-financed infrastructure project and the legal limits on changing private contracts.