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New Power Struggle at KCCA
KCCA ED Jennifer Musisi
The latest bickering has seen the unceremonious eviction of a senior army officer Col. David Karuhanga, 2015 which The Sunrise has seen, had the KCCA Director of Administration and Human Resources Richard Lule issue matching orders to Karuhanga to vacate the office immediately.
The letter read: “This is to advise that… the office space and the desk you’re currently using was erroneously allocated to you and your presence in that office jeopadizes the planned KCCA operations expected from that office. This is to request you to vacate the office and seek office space from the RCC’s wing,” the letter reads in part.
It adds: “By copy of this email, the office of the Town Clerk is requested to withdraw all the resource allocated to Lt. Col immediately.”
The ultimatum has sparked agitation on the side of political leaders in Nakawa including the division’s resident district commissioner, who have ordered Karuhanga to not move a step.
Nakawa Division’s politicians led by the Mayor Ben Kalumba argue that the order will jeopardize the implementation of Operation Wealth Creation programs currently being rolled out in the country.
A crisis meeting involving among others, politicians and the Nakawa Division RCC Kiiza Kemigisha was called last week by Majimbi Juanita, the Head of the Division’s Gender and Production Committee under whose docket OWC falls to resolve the impasse .
Without responding to KCCA’s eviction letter, the politicians resolved to defy the eviction order by KCCA accusing the technocrats of disrespecting political leaders’ efforts to serve the people who elected them.
In addition, the agitated political leaders argue that the RCC’s office where KCCA has sent Kaluhanga is not easily accessible by the public.
But Kampala Resident City Commissioner Aisha Kabanda, has jumped to the defense of Musisi’s team by arguing that OWC officials need not operate from an office but instead work in the field.
Kabanda explains that KCCA took the decision to evict Karuhanga because they had not received official communication from the RCC’s office.
“But now that we have officially communicated to them, they have understood it and UPDF officials responsible for program are already in the field doing their work,” Kabanda clarified.
Kabanda condemned the move by UPDF officials to start taking up offices adding that they risk repeating past mistakes such as spending millions on workshops, which partly led to the collapse of NAADS. Operation Wealth Creation, is a new plan by which the government intends to take over former NAADS programmes such as distributing seeds and animals.
“Diverting funds meant to lift people from poverty into such insignificant expenditures as renting offices, endless workshops among other things must be avoided this time round if the program (reffering to OWC) will succeed,” said Kabanda.
The new row represents a new wave of bickering between technocrats and politicians including president Museveni’s representatives. Reliable sources have told The Sunrise that Musisi’s KCCA has perpetually kept them in the dark regarding progress on several programmes. Musisi’s team does not want politicians to take any credit for successes recorded by her administration, much to the annoyance of politicians whose future lies in the public’s appreciation of the fact that they are delivering tangible results. Politicians have occasionally complained that KCCA launches works in their absence making it impossible for them to own them up.
Efforts to get a comment from KCCA’s Executive Director Jennifer Musisi or her Spokesperson Peter Kauju were futile as they were not picking their phones.
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