Lukwago calls meeting over his salary
Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago. PHOTO BY FAISWAL KASIRYE
What you need to know:
The Lord Mayor says he has not received salary for November and December and yet police continue to occupy his office. He wants to raise money from the public to run his office.
Kampala
The embattled Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago has said he will call a stakeholders meeting early January about police’s continued presence at his office and his delayed salary.
Speaking to the Sunday Monitor on Friday, Mr Lukwago said he is left with no option but to call on Kampalans to help him re-access his offices since dialogue with government has collapsed.
Mr Lukwago did not go into details of the particular date and venue of the meeting “due to security reasons” but said among the issues he will report to the stakeholders are: “…police’s presence at the Mayor’s Parlour, why my remunerations have delayed and the outcomes of the dialogues that have since flopped”.
“In that meeting, I intend to seek for fundraising from the public that will include MPs, traders, opposition people, boda bodas and taxi operators and other citizens, so that I can raise money to run the day-today activities of my office since my salary hasn’t been paid up-to-date.”
Mr Lukwago said he is entitled to a monthly stipend of Shs16 million, but he has been receiving Shs11.4 million as take home package.
No access to office
“My salary is always remitted on every 24th of the month, but since my impeachment, it has been delaying and I’m yet to receive that of November and December,” he said. Mr Lukwago has not accessed his office since the KCCA council passed a censure vote against him on November 25 following a tribunal report that had found him guilty of misconduct, abuse of office and incompetence. Seventeen councillors had petitioned Kampala minister Frank Tumwebaze to investigate Mr Lukwago.
High Court Judge Yasin Nyanzi, however, on November 28, nullified the censure vote, ruling that an injunction had already been granted to the Lord Mayor staying the implementation of the tribunal report, which he [Mr Lukwago] is challenging in court.
But later in a meeting attended by Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, Internal Affairs Minister Aronda Nyakayirima, Mr Tumwebaze, KCCA Executive Director Jennifer Musisi and the Kampala Metropolitan Commander Andrew Felix Kaweesi, the government announced that Mr Lukwago was no longer the Lord Mayor of Kampala; that he was a private citizen like any other Ugandan.
However, Mr Lukwago said government should respect the rule of law and allow State institutions to operate without dictatorial supremacies. “The court order we have, the Attorney General also recognises it. As oppositions we have given dialogue a lot of time, but it yielded no returns,” he said.
KCCA spokesperson Peter Kaujju could not be reached for a comment on why Mr Lukwago’s salary had delayed as all call attempts to his official phone numbers were not received.
