Fred Bamwsigye, Director General at UCAAThe Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) has defended the UGX 5.39 billion spent on a new fire truck for Entebbe International Airport, insisting the equipment is not an ordinary vehicle but a highly specialised engineering plant without which no international airline can land in Uganda.The Authority made the defence before the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) on Tuesday, during scrutiny of the December 2025 Auditor General’s report.Samuel Wonekha, General Manager – Regional Airports, told the committee chaired by Muwada Nkunyingi (Kyadondo East) that the procurement was done after benchmarking with sister airports in the region and that Uganda actually secured a lower price.“In procuring specialised equipment, we do a lot of collaboration around sister airports and I want to clearly confirm to you that we bought this fire truck at a lower cost than others buy it in the region, through our negotiations,” Wonekha said. “Aviation is not cheap. Most of the specialised equipment is very expensive and without them, you cannot meet international standards. You will have to go for them and ensure that you have them, that is when airlines will operate into and out of your country, you have no option.”COSASE had tasked UCAA to provide evidence of ownership, cost and functionality of the fire truck stationed at Entebbe.Fred Bamwsigye, Director General at UCAA, informed the committee that the truck is owned by UCAA, registered as UA38070AA on June 22, 2026, manufactured in Turkiye under the Lion brand.The debate arose after Hassan Musinguzi, Director Finance at UCAA, described the equipment as an engineering plant and not just a fire truck, costing UGX 5,398,500,000, prompting Chairperson Muwada to question why a single vehicle would cost UGX 5.3 billion.“What do you mean by engineering plant? We saw a truck. It was moving on tyres. It is registered as a motor vehicle,” Muwada queried. “Assist us to understand why one truck could cost UGX 5.3 billion. What is the uniqueness?”Wonekha explained that what appears as a truck is in fact a complex rescue system with multiple integrated components for aircraft fire and rescue operations.“You will have components that carry foam. There will be a tank of up to almost 12,500 litres that carries water, which gets mixed with foam in case of an advanced fire,” he explained. “We have equipment on it that will be used to access the aircraft in case people are trapped inside and you have to cut it open to evacuate people. It is mounted with a specialised generator to power the cutting equipment. You have to assemble it very quickly to access different tools that cut through the aircraft.”UCAA stressed that such specialised Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) vehicles are a mandatory requirement by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and without them, Entebbe International Airport would be downgraded and international carriers would be barred from operating.The post No Fire Truck, No Flights: UCAA Explains Why Entebbe’s Shs5.3Bn Rescue Truck Can’t Be Compared to Ordinary Vehicles appeared first on Business Focus.