Was Opposition celebration over Kampala premature?

In the wee hours of February 25, 2016, Mr Erias Lukwago was declared winner of the city mayoral race with more than 80 per cent of the votes.

Lukwago, who was returning to office after more than three years of being locked out, polled more than 170,000 votes to beat NRM’s Daniel Kazibwe, his closest rival, with a margin of 127,000 votes.
The voters did not only return Lukwago to City Hall, they also made sure that he goes back with loyal councillors. The tables in the Authority had turned and Lukwago could afford to smile because the government needed his support to have things done through an Opposition-controlled Authority.
NRM had lost its 20-member majority, with only two councillors surviving the voters’ fury in what some people called “a payback poll”.

But one and half years down the road, Mr Lukwago now says the council which he presides over is under siege. None of the resolutions the council has passed in the last 18 months has been approved.
Some of the resolutions passed by the council but trashed include; devolving powers to urban division mayors; suspending the redevelopment of Nakivubo War Memorial Stadium; relocating of Park Yard market vendors; gazetting some city roads for street vendors to operate during evening hours, and payment of the Lord Mayor’s salary arrears.
Others include salary enhancement for all city political leaders; suing the minister for allegedly disrespecting the political wing at City Hall; withdrawing the controversial KCCA amendment Bill 2015 from Parliament to include the input of all stakeholders, and the recent suspension of heads of the KCCA law enforcement team, Mr Kituuma Rusoke and Mr Edwin Katugume.

Not ready to let Kampala go
After losing in Kampala, President Museveni appointed Ms Beti Kamya, the Uganda Federal Alliance leader, as the new minister for Kampala and elevated what used to be a department under the Presidency docket to a ministry.
Ms Kamya would later try to assure those looking at her with suspicion that she had not come in to fight anyone, but rather work with everyone. The minister, however, currently doesn’t see eye to eye with both Lord Mayor Lukwago and KCCA executive director Jennifer Musisi.
Mr Lukwago, who is the political head of the Authority, says city leaders have been deprived of their powers to legislate for the people they represent.

“Political leaders in the city represent the interests of the people in the city and that’s why we convene here to legislate. It is, therefore, not in order for the minister to trash the resolutions we pass as an authority,” Mr Lukwago told the council on Wednesday.
“We made a social contract with the people of Kampala which we must fulfil. We shall not tolerate the manoeuvres used by madam Kamya because we have the power of the people.”

What the law says
According to Section 5 of the KCCA Act, “There shall be an authority to be known as Kampala Capital City Authority which shall be headed by the Lord Mayor.
The functions of the Authority are to: initiate and formulate policy, set service delivery standards, determine taxation levels, monitor the general administration and provision of services in the divisions, enact legislation and to carry out physical planning and development control among others.”
According to the Act, when the council makes resolutions, they are supposed to be signed and sent to the executive director. The executive director then studies them and sends them to the minister who is supposed to table them before Cabinet for approval.

However, Section 79(1) of the same Act mandates the minister to vary or rescind any decision of the Authority which is in contravention of any law or government policy with approval of Cabinet.
But the councillors accuse the minister of trashing their resolutions without any formal explanation.
Sunday Monitor was unable to reach Ms Kamya for a comment on this story, but State minister for Kampala Affairs Benny Namugwanya dismissed the councillors’ claims.

“Ideally, all the resolutions that are passed in council have to be first signed before they are brought to the minister for approval, but we have never received any of the signed resolutions,” Ms Namugwanya says.
“Also, some of their resolutions contradict the existing laws. For instance, they resolved to gazette some city roads for vendors but this can’t be possible because those roads have to be first approved by the Ministry of Works and Transport.”

However, Mr Lukwago says those are political manoeuvres being used to fight the elected leaders. “The previous minister used the same tricks to fight us but he failed. Now that madam Kamya has followed the same direction, we shall fight for what belongs to us because we want the rule of law to prevail,” he says.
Nakawa mayor Ronald Balimwezo Nsubuga says the problem goes beyond the minister.

“Madam Musisi has equally joined hands with the minister to frustrate city leaders. This is because when the Lord Mayor was controversially impeached last term, she remained serving two offices as executive director and Lord Mayor, she doesn’t want to give powers back to the elected leaders,” he says.
Musisi on the other hand accused politicians of frustrating KCCA operations, saying they are to be blamed for the stalled projects in the city.

The councillors are frustrated too. Emmanuel Sserunjogi, the Kawempe division mayor, wonders why KCCA keeps paying them yet the powers to execute their duties have been slashed.
“We get salary and allowance every time we convene for a meeting, but there is nothing we are doing on the ground because our powers were defiled. For instance, we depend on the technical team at KCCA for anything, whether it’s a pen or a ream of paper. Many projects in city divisions have stalled because we don’t have funding and powers to see them through,” he says.

To resolve the protracted power battles at City Hall, Kawempe North MP Latif Ssebagala, who is also the chairperson of Kampala City MPs, says the minister must revisit her working relations with other city leaders.
“When the minister had just been appointed, she gave us an impression that she could work with everyone and we were very happy. However, as time went by, she surprised us when she started changing. I have personally attended KCCA council meetings where councillors have always complained of being frustrated by the minister. We must all work together if we are to develop Kampala City,” he said.
One and half years after Opposition sweeping City Hall and President Museveni appointing an ‘Opposition’ minister, what is now becoming clear is that hope is fading for those who thought it was a new dawn at KCCA.
Much as the Opposition won the vote to lead the city, with NRM in power at the higher level the fights and impasses at KCCA will continue if the two sides cannot work together.

REACTIONS

“Political leaders in the city represent the interests of the people in the city and that’s why we convene here to legislate. It is, therefore, not in order for the minister to trash the resolutions we pass as an authority,”
Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago

“Ideally, all the resolutions that are passed in council have to be first signed before they are brought to the minister for approval, but we have never received any of the signed resolutions,”
Junior Kampala minister B. Namugwanya