KAMPALA — He has never sought headlines. For more than three decades, David Ssali Luyimbazi has worked quietly at the centre of Uganda’s infrastructure development machinery — in planning directorates, procurement committees, donor negotiation rooms, and parliamentary accountability processes.
He helped build the systems that transformed Uganda’s roads sector, contributed to the digitalisation of Kampala’s revenue systems, and answered to Parliament for every shilling entrusted to some of the country’s largest infrastructure institutions.
Now, quietly but unmistakably, his name is increasingly being mentioned in the corridors where Uganda’s most senior public service appointments are discussed.
Sources across government, the development partner community, and the private infrastructure sector say Luyimbazi is being considered for one of two of Uganda’s most consequential — and challenging — public service positions: Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Works and Transport, or Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Water and Environment.
Insiders say either appointment would signal a serious push to confront the bureaucratic stagnation that has slowed progress in both sectors despite years of substantial government and donor funding.
The case for Luyimbazi, however, rests less on political connections than on what many describe as an unusually deep and verifiable record of institutional achievement spanning more than thirty years.
A Career Defined by Systems Building
Luyimbazi holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Makerere University, a Master of Science in Highway Management and Engineering with Distinction from the University of Birmingham, and a Master of Science in Major Programme Management from the University of Oxford.
He is also a Registered Engineer with the Engineers Registration Board of Uganda and a member of the Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers.
Over the years, he underwent specialist training in public-private partnership structuring, transport investment appraisal, road asset management, and project management across the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Israel — completing 18 international specialist programmes in total.
But beyond the academic credentials, colleagues and sector insiders say his defining contribution has been institution-building.
“He didn’t just sit in an office. David built the systems. The national roads databank covering 20,000 km? That was him. The first national M&E framework? Him. The Road Fund design? Also him. When UNRA was working, it was because he had set up the architecture,” a former Uganda National Roads Authority colleague said on condition of anonymity.
UNRA and Uganda’s Road Sector Transformation
When Luyimbazi joined UNRA as Director of Planning in April 2008, Uganda’s national road network stood at approximately 10,800 kilometres. Procurement cycles stretched close to two years, project preparation often took four years, and road construction costs had climbed to nearly US$1 million per kilometre.
By the time he left in 2015, the network had expanded to roughly 21,000 kilometres.
The proportion of paved roads in fair-to-good condition rose significantly even as the network nearly doubled. Roads ready for tendering increased from 344 kilometres to 2,674 kilometres, while project preparation timelines reportedly dropped from four years to under twelve months.
Officials familiar with the reforms say procurement cycles were cut in half and road upgrading costs reduced from US$1 million per kilometre to approximately US$700,000 per kilometre through reforms personally designed and championed by Luyimbazi.
Among the institutional reforms associated with his tenure were Uganda’s Integrated National Transport Master Plan, rolling 10-year road investment programmes, the national road unit cost monitoring database, and the country’s first contractor-facilitated infrastructure financing models.
He also helped structure Uganda’s first major road public-private partnership transaction — the Kampala-Jinja Expressway project.
“The systems he built — the HDM-4 calibration, the databank, the investment programmes — are still the tools the sector uses. He didn’t just deliver projects. He changed how the entire sector thinks about evidence, investment, and accountability,” a senior transport sector official said.
Eight Institutional Firsts
Colleagues and sector analysts say what separates Luyimbazi from many public officials is not simply the volume of projects delivered, but the number of institutional “firsts” linked to his work.
Among them were: Uganda’s first integrated multi-modal National Transport Master Plan; Rolling 10-year road investment programmes; The first national road construction unit cost monitoring database; Uganda’s first contractor-facilitated infrastructure financing model through the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway; The country’s first road public-private partnership framework for the Kampala-Jinja Expressway; Procurement reforms that increased competition and reduced costs; A government-funded pipeline for investment-ready infrastructure projects; and Information-based infrastructure decision systems including the national roads databank and HDM-4 calibration models.
Analysts say many of these systems remain central to Uganda’s infrastructure planning and investment decisions today.
KCCA and Managing a City of Four Million
From 2020 until September 2024, Luyimbazi served as Deputy Executive Director of Kampala Capital City Authority, the second-highest executive office in the authority.
In that role, he oversaw day-to-day operations for a city serving more than four million daily users while coordinating major programmes valued at approximately US$640 million.
These included the Kampala City Roads Rehabilitation Programme, drainage and climate resilience projects, smart traffic systems, urban sanitation programmes, markets modernisation, and revenue administration reforms.
One of the most notable outcomes during that period was the increase in KCCA’s own-source revenue from approximately UGX 80 billion annually to more than UGX 120 billion following digitalisation reforms and expansion of the taxpayer register.
Luyimbazi also oversaw the conceptualisation of the Kampala Digital Twin and rollout of smart traffic control systems across major city junctions.
“The pattern is consistent with everything that preceded it: where Luyimbazi leads, institutions are left with better systems, stronger data, and greater capacity than he found them,” one source familiar with KCCA operations said.
Integrity and Institutional Reform
For many within government and the development sector, one of the strongest arguments in Luyimbazi’s favour is his reputation for integrity.
Sources across ministries and agencies note that despite decades managing billion-dollar infrastructure programmes, procurement systems, donor financing negotiations, and public budgets, he has not been associated with major corruption allegations.
“He is not a politician,” a former KCCA colleague said. “He is a technocrat’s technocrat. He doesn’t want a cut. He wants the work to work. That is why he sometimes clashed with those who put personal gain ahead of public delivery. And that is precisely why he is what the permanent secretary office needs.”
Others argue that his experience in procurement reform and accountability systems would be especially important in sectors facing increasing public scrutiny over value for money and project implementation.
“Water and Environment needs a systems thinker. Someone who understands not just engineering, but fiscal strategy, donor negotiation, and — crucially — how to hold teams accountable. That is exactly what Luyimbazi demonstrated at UNRA and KCCA,” a development partner official said.
A Broader Question for Government
The growing discussion around Luyimbazi’s future role comes amid renewed calls by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni for competent and patriotic technocrats capable of delivering measurable results in public service.
Some analysts believe an appointment of this nature would send a strong signal to both the civil service and development partners.
“The question is whether the President is serious about reform,” one transport sector analyst said.
“If he is, an appointment of this kind would send a signal — not just to the civil service, but to development partners, to contractors, and to the Ugandan public. This is an individual who has already demonstrated that he can deliver billion-dollar programmes cleanly, on time, and in a manner that leaves institutions stronger than he found them. That is an exceptionally rare thing.”
For many in Uganda’s infrastructure sector, the debate now goes beyond one individual appointment.
It is increasingly about whether the country’s institutions are prepared to deploy some of their most experienced technocrats where they are needed most.
After thirty years in infrastructure governance, procurement reform, donor negotiations, urban management, and systems design, supporters argue that Eng. Luyimbazi’s public record already speaks for itself.
The question, they say, is whether government is ready to fully utilise it.