A story is told of an impatient American tourist who on reaching the spot where Jesus walked on water, was told to pay a hundred dollars for a boat ride across. Shaking his head, he said, “No wonder Jesus opted to walk!”

Faith-based tourism earns millions for countries like Saudi Arabia and Israel. But Uganda is also poised to earn from technology-based tourism, starting next year when its wonder road gets commissioned.

Our technological marvel runs for 50 kilometres from a swampy slum west of Kampala called Busega, up to Entebbe. Easily the world’s most expensive road, the thin snake of tarmac has cost at a whopping $10 million per kilometre, while the world average is $1million/km.

Tourists should pay us $100 dollars each to be driven in a bus while taking selfies on the world’s most expensive road. But while the wonder road nears completion, some slow-thinking MPs have failed to fathom the treasure we have in our lap. They were grilling roads authority officials to explain the use of the $500 million road since it is not going to help decongest Kampala as was earlier claimed.

Easily the world’s most expensive road, the thin snake of tarmac in Uganda has cost at a whopping $10 million per kilometre, while the world average is $1million/km. ILLUSTRATION | JOHN NYAGAH |

Indeed, it was said in beginning that since some people are missing their flights at Entebbe Airport because of the awful traffic jam in Kampala, Chinese lenders provided a loan of about $500 million to solve the problem.

Roads officials failed to convince the nosy MPs that the Entebbe Expressway will in any way help a person in Kampala reach Entebbe faster, since they still have to cross the congested city to get to Busega swamp where the wonder road starts.

These grumbling MPs seem to think we should be like the Kenyans, who also used Chinese money to redevelop Thika Highway and thus entirely change the transport dynamics of Nairobi. Grow up guys.

Their exchange reminded me of a great research project that was said to have taken place in the United States in the 1960s at a cost of millions of dollars before it was abandoned. The study was aimed at inventing a pen that astronauts could use to write while in outer space.

There were no touch screen iPads or smartphone keypads that respond to the retina then. As you know, ink in a pen reaches the nib or the ball point by gravity. So where there is no gravity a pen cannot write — try writing while lying on your back.

As frustrated American scientists were still scratching their heads, the US secret service reportedly solved the riddle by finding out how the Soviet astronauts did it — they were simply using pencils!

When Uganda’s planners were faced with the problem of passengers missing flights due to Kampala’s traffic jams, they could simply have advised travellers to leave Kampala a little earlier. That way, we wouldn’t reach a stage of wondering whether a $500 million investment is of any use at all.

But we can do better than the Americans who abandoned the gravity-free pen project. We can be like the Israelis — make money from people who want to visit the famous places in their country.

The Uganda Tourism Board, which has in the past year promoted mundane issues like circumcision around Mount Elgon and egg rolls fried on Kampala’s dusty pavements, can now start selling the world’s most expensive road, found in the same country where the world’s longest river starts.