Inside Kamya, Musisi battle for Kampala

KCCA executive director Jennifer Musisi and Kampala minister Beti Kamya. MONITOR PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • Fight for Kampala. The fractured relationship between Kampala minister Beti Kamya and Kampala Capital City Authority executive director Jennifer Musisi seems far from being fixed.
  • The latest in their battle for supremacy over Kampala is Ms Kamya threatening to institute a commission of inquiry into KCCA’s operations.
  • Such a probe, if instituted, would target the head of institution – Ms Musisi, Sunday Monitor’s Amos Ngwomoya writes.

The fractured relationship between Kampala minister Beti Kamya and Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) executive director Jennifer Musisi seems far from being fixed.
The latest in their battle for supremacy over Kampala is Ms Kamya threatening to institute a commission of inquiry into KCCA’s operations. This was after city councillors reported to her last week that there was no transparency in the institution, especially the legal department.
Ms Kamya then tasked councillors to bring to her their queries on KCCA staff, and that if she found them true, she would set up a probe committee to restore sanity in the institution.
Such a probe if instituted would target the head of institution – Ms Musisi. Although the minister says she is doing her work as empowered by the law, some political and technical officials at KCCA are questioning the manner in which she is working.

What went wrong?
After Ms Kamya had just been appointed minister last year, she pledged to reconcile Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and Ms Musisi who had hitherto had an acrimonious relationship.
In her early days as minister, Ms Kamya and Ms Musisi would meet every week to plan for the city, an arrangement that has since been abandoned.
The first time cracks emerged in the Kamya-Musisi relationship was when Park Yard Market was demolished in March. KCCA denied involvement in the matter, saying eviction of the vendors had been sanctioned by the minister.
Then when State minister for Kampala Affairs Benny Namugwanya re-tabled the controversial KCCA amendment Bill in Parliament in May, Ms Musisi wrote to both ministers protesting the Bill. She wondered why the ministers re-tabled the Bill yet they had planned to withdraw the same from Parliament.
But when Ms Kamya returned from leave, she accused Ms Musisi of doing her work in the media, adding that Ms Musisi had been involved in every process of the Bill.

Controversial Bill
In the Bill, it is proposed that the executive director reports direct to the minister and not to the President as has been.
It is also proposed that the minister will be the political head of the city, something Lord Mayor Lukwago has vehemently opposed.
It is alleged that Ms Musisi fears that if the Bill is passed into law in its current form, she will definitely be under the minister. But, according to the current KCCA Act, both the minister and the executive director have specified roles.
Whereas Section 79 empowers the minister to give directives on policy and general development of the city, Section 19 gives the executive director powers to be the accounting officer of KCCA.
In their disagreements, each one of them has always claimed that they are executing their duties within the law.

Latest wrangle
In the heart of the current bickering between the minister and executive director is the enhancement of salaries of city political leaders.
Ms Kamya early last month proposed a 30 per cent salary increment for all political leaders in the city. She would later direct Ms Musisi to implement her directive, but the latter rejected her proposal, arguing that the institution does not have money at the moment.
“We are not in position to ascertain the revenue trend to establish the revenue growth required to fund and sustain the proposed increment. This renders it impossible for management to implement your directive effective July 2017,” wrote Ms Musisi in a July 13 letter.
Ms Kamya, who didn’t seem amused, then shot back on July 24, insisting that her directive must be implemented. She also reminded the executive director that determining emoluments of the political leaders was the role of the minister.
“It’s on record that in 2011 when the non-tax revenue of KCCA was very low, you proposed that the Lord Mayor was to earn Shs36m, Deputy Lord Mayor Shs29m, Authority councillors Shs12m and urban councillors Shs9m. The reason why your proposal was rejected wasn’t because of lack of resources, but politics of the day,” Ms Kamya wrote.
For now, Ms Kamya has removed the salary enhancement burden from herself and placed it on Ms Musisi’s shoulders, whom she accuses of blocking it.
City councillors have since sought an appointment with President Museveni to air their dissatisfaction with the ED.
When contacted for a comment on this story, Ms Kamya said she is doing her work as mandated by the KCCA Act and declined to delve into details of her disagreements with Ms Musisi, saying she does not conduct her work in the media like others do.
Efforts to speak to Ms Musisi were futile as she did not respond to our calls. KCCA Spokesperson Peter Kaujju also declined to comment on the matter.

Source of power blamed
Makerere University history don and political analyst Mwambutsya Ndebesa blames the clashes between Ms Musisi and Ms Kamya on the appointing authority who he says gives both parties powers that eventually make them disagree in as far as management of the city is concerned.
He says although Ms Musisi had used the same power to clash with Mr Lukwago who she feared could overshadow her as the executive director, she has since used the same method to outsmart the Ms Kamya because she fears to remain irrelevant, especially when the latter wields much power.
“Although Ms Musisi’s job is administrative, she also has political power in equal measure which is guaranteed by the appointing authority,” Mr Ndebesa says, adding that “The administration of Kampala has been politicised and what is at play now is power dynamics and not service delivery. For instance, when you look at the Ministry of Kampala, it has no hierarchy because there is no permanent secretary and other commissioners.”
Mr Ndebesa adds: “By creating the Ministry of Kampala Affairs and thereafter appointing two ministers in that docket, the appointing authority was paving way for confusion because when you look at the role of these two ministers, it’s the same job which the executive director has been doing. The executive director therefore seems to be having powers beyond the conventional civil servant because she has powers on decision making and she also has structures”.
To resolve this impasse, Mr Ndebesa says, Parliament must probe the standoff between the minister and the executive director to mitigate further bickering which could deny Kampala residents service delivery.
Capt Francis Babu, the former MP for Kampala Central, also blames the clashes on the appointing authority.
“For instance, when you look at the office of the executive director, it’s so powerful than that of the minister and the former gets more salary than that of the latter. When you look at the structures, the executive director has [more] powers compared to the minister. In such a situation, clashes are inevitable because everyone wants to be powerful,” Capt Babu says.
By giving much power to the executive director than any other leader in the management of the city, Mr Babu says, it makes her superior to the others, adding that the clashes won’t stop unless the appointing authority rethinks their method.
“The appointing authority is the one creating confusion because they want to fulfil their interests in the city without even taking into consideration the structure of the city. Both the two ministers for Kampala and the executive director for KCCA want to show influence and in the end, service delivery remains a dream,” he says.
In a recent interview with this newspaper, Mr Lukwago blamed the intrigue at City Hall on the President whom he accused of believing in politics of manipulation.
“Mr Museveni lost legitimacy in Kampala and so he wants to use underhand methods by grabbing people’s power in Kampala by using political manoeuvres and machinations to wrestle the political power from within the elected leaders of Kampala. Since he knows he can’t exercise it directly as the circumstance suit, he then choses who to give powers,” Mr Lukwago said.
However, Senior Presidential Press Secretary Don Wanyama disagrees with those blaming the appointing authority for Ms Musisi and Ms Kamya’s clashes, saying the roles of both parties are clearly demarcated as provided for in the KCCA Act.
“Those who are blaming the President for appointing Ms Kamya as minister yet the city has the executive director are totally mistaken because their roles are clearly stipulated in the law. Obviously, officials will always disagree over certain management issues and there is no society where people will never disagree. Therefore, there disagreement can’t be blamed on the appointing authority,” Mr Wanyama told Sunday Monitor in a telephone interview.
To resolve the impasse, Mr Wanyama says both Ms Musisi and Ms Kamya must find an amicable way of resolving their differences.