Museveni tells off Lukwago in city tour

President Museveni chats with one of the medical officer at the newly launched Kisenye Health Centre IV during a tour in Kampala yesterday. PHOTo BY FAISWAL KASIRYE.

KAMPALA.
President Museveni has described former FDC president Kizza Besigye and embattled Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago as malicious people ‘who destroy poor people’s property when they demonstrate’.

The President was presiding over the climax for Kampala Capital City Authority’s celebration of three years since it replaced the now defunct Kampala City Council at Lugogo in Kampala. “Lukwago and Besigye are not only opposition people but they do dangerous activities.”
“If they came to my kraal in Rwakitura to cause chaos and demonstrate, I would strike them with my spear,” the President said.
The President said he had rescued the people of Kampala from hanging themselves in every election.

“By voting Lukwago, Moses Kasibante, Latif Ssebagala and others whose names I don’t even know, the people of Kampala were hanging themselves but I have cut them off from the ropes. Please don’t do it again.” Kasibante is Rubaga North MP while Ssebagala represents Kawempe North in Parliament.
They, like Lukwago, belong to opposition DP. “I was annoyed and had resolved to leave the people of Kampala in floods, dust and garbage but when I reflected, I decided to forgive them as Jesus (forgave mankind),” he said. Using a Luganda proverb, the President likened the Lord Mayor to a dog barking at an elephant. He said he was a fighter who used the Constitution to fix Lukwago.

“In the law, we decided to put the Mayor but under the executive director who decides what has to be done. The Lord Mayor is there with robes and padlocks but the power is with Jennifer Musisi,” Museveni said.

He thanked the councillors who he said put on better glasses compared to Besigye and Lukwago. “I would like to thank you (the councillors) for chasing away Lukwago. I will meet with you soon,” Mr Museveni said in reference to last year’s contested impeachment of the Lord Mayor. The impeachment case is still in court.
The President summed up KCCA’s three years as littered with ‘development and wars’, saying he had brought ‘this girl’ [Musisi] to fix Kampala. Earlier he had toured different projects, including Kafumbe Mukasa Road, an employment service bureau housed in former Mayor Ssebagala’s house and Kisenyi Health Center IV.