Kayihura reveals reasons behind KCCA - police row
L-R: Gen Kale Kayihura, the Inspector General of Police and Jennifer Musisi, the KCCA Executive Director.
KAMPALA- Police chief Gen Kale Kayihura has said he ordered the withdrawal of traffic officers because their public criticism by KCCA executive director Jennifer Musisi marked a peak in disagreement between the institutions.
The Inspector General of Police’s explanation, offered at a public event in the city suburb of Kulambiro on Sunday, also provided new insights into a protracted row between police and city hall undergirded by politics and fight over control of money-making outfits.
Gen Kayihura accused KCCA of causing mayhem in the city by first disbanding the Uganda Taxi Operators and Drivers Association (UTODA) against police advice, and now planning to disband Boda Boda 2010 group led by Abdallah Kitatta.
Members of the Boda Boda group, Gen Kayihura said, helped security agencies to stop riots in Kampala, but that after things turned in government’s favour, some people now want to drive the riders out of work.
“Some people who are making noise about them…are seeing that things have cooled down and they have eaten to satiety, so they want to burn the granary,” he said.
KCCA plans effective next year to stop boda boda riders from operating within the central business district as part of wider efforts to bring order in the inner-city but police are opposed to it, saying it will lead to unemployment and insecurity.
Boda boda 2010 is an organisation aligned to the ruling NRM party. Its members, in the run-up to and after last year’s elections, were accused of working alongside police to whip Opposition supporters during demonstrations.
KCCA blamed
Although Gen Kayihura on Sunday did not refer to the KCCA executive director by name, he cited KCCA policies on taxi management, boda boda motorcyclists and traffic control system as the cause of inner-city travel troubles.
The police chief said the people making the most noise that officers should allow traffic flow to be regulated by traffic lights are the same ones responsible for creating the mess in public transport service.
“I am the one who [ordered] that since they [traffic officers] have been sacrificing a lot and they are now criticised, they should leave. Then you saw the chaos. I [later] instructed them [traffic officers] to go back and work,” he said.
Gen Kayihura’s abrasive comments were in relation to Ms Musisi’s tongue-lashing of traffic officers, who she likened to law breakers for aiding motorists to run traffic lights instead of apprehending them.
On Friday, the police reacted by withdrawing traffic officers manning junctions, plunging the city centre into an extraordinary jam.
Gen Kayihura on Sunday complained that Ms Musisi’s team first erred by dismantling UTODA which managed commuter taxis in the city, in disregard of police’s counsel.
“Now we have several groups in the taxi businesses and it is chaos,” he said, adding that it is now the police that have to respond to created problems.
Utoda used to collect revenue from taxis on behalf of KCCA. However, their contract was cancelled in 2011 on allegations that the association was harassing taxi operators and was also not remitting collected funds to KCCA.
