It’s now ten years since the inception of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) having been elevated from being Kampala Capital City (KCC) to an authority with a full ministry responsible for overseeing the work done in the capital city.
Since then to date it has been getting a separate budget vote in the national budget which is supposed to be used to extend social services to the people of Kampala but the services for instance the construction and turmarcing of roads and markets as well as maintaining the already existing one is still wanting.
Instead allot of funds have been lost in fabricated cost cases according the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago who has been at the helm of its leadership since its inception.
Lukwago says that the Authority has never won any single case in courts of Law and this has lead to loss of billions of tax payers money and in the recent passed KCCA compensated SSLOA an association owned by the St. Balikuddembe (Owino) market vendors UGX 1O billions as part of the compensation of UGX 17 billion awarded by commercial court.
The Authority had failed to grant the lease as it had been agreed in 2010 with SSLOA after receiving a total sum of UGX 4,200,000,000 as premium and ground rent fees in the same year.
According to the letter Lord Mayor Lukwago wrote to the leader of opposition in Parliament, he alleges that the Central government is planning to spend 100 million US dollars on procurement of 10 acres of land in Kisenyi from city tycoon Bosco Muwonge purportedly for resettlement of the street vendors.
Lukwago alleges that there are cartels of people within KCCA and central government who are planning to connive and defraud Ugandans through procuring of the said land in disguise of resettling of street vendors.
“As elected leaders in Kampala, we have vehemently opposed that because we take it as another cash bonanza for the cartel and mafia“. Lukwago said while addressing journalist in a press conference.
He further said that as council they resolved that this exorbitant amount be channelled to KCCA for purposes of constructing markets in the five Divisions of Kampala instead of wasting on procuring Muwonge`s land.
The private secretary to President Museveni in charge of Youth, innovation and export promotion Dr, Hillary Emma Musoke says that there is need for more markets in the capital city to accommodate the low income earners especially the youth who can`t be absorbed in the formal sector.
“ I have no problem with government procuring Muwonge`s land in Kisenyi as long as it buys it at the current market price“. Dr. Musoke said.
He further said that government is currently faced with a challenge of securing land where it can accommodate its projects especially in Kampala because all government land was sold and part leased to private developers during the late Ssebaana Kizito and Nasser Ssebagala regimes as mayors then respectively.
In the Financial year 2017/2018 Beti Olive Kamya the minister for Kampala then revealed that, KCCA had accumulated compensations estimated at more than UGX 40 billion arising from various court suits filed against the Authority and this led to the freezing of the bank accounts owned by KCCA in some banks, this has in one way or the other jeopardized work.
However during the end of year media briefing the Authority`s Executive director Dorothy Kisaka talked about the achievement and ignored to comment on such huge challenge of losing court cases.
By George Bukenya
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