Kitaka: I won’t allow political interference derail KCCA projects

You unveiled a six-month plan last week to transform Kampala City. How do you intend to achieve this with the declining budget?
Already in our work plan for this financial year, we have works that are supposed to take place in the city but we also have leeway to amend our plans to address the emergencies that have come up. So, in terms of road maintenance, we already have a work plan and within this one. We shall be able to attend to some of the emergencies that have come up.
However, as regards rehabilitation and upgrading, those are bigger works and they are part of the second phase of the Kampala Institutional and Infrastructure project (KIIDP-2) and we are going to launch their construction which will take about two years. But we have a plan already and it is achievable.

It is said your predecessor Jennifer Musisi resigned because of political pressure from State House, especially the President who accused her of antagonising city residents with high-handedness which cost him votes in Kampala. How prepared are you to cope with that pressure yet you also have to deliver on your mandate of reorganising Kampala to international city standards?
I think that is not true. But as an institution, all our operations are guided by the law and it is that same law that I will use to deliver services to the people [of Kampala.]

One of the biggest challenges in KCCA has been political friction between the technical team and the political wing - specifically Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, Kampala minister Beti Kamya and the KCCA executive. Have you made up a plan on how to resolve this impasse that has often derailed KCCA’s development plans?
Well, political interference has been there and I don’t think that it will stop. But what we learnt from the seven years matters. I think there is room for cooperation now. I am going to try my best to foster a harmonious working relationship between the political and technical wing and it is possible.

I will not allow the political interference to derail our programmes and it will require us as the technical wing to foster cooperation with the political one. But I am also aware that they also want to cooperate because they are politicians and they must have something to show to the people in their different constituencies and their term of office is yet to expire. It is, therefore, very important to account to their people on what they have done.

KCCA has been experiencing budget cuts from about Shs500b down to about Shs300b yet you have lined up big projects in the next six months such as upgrading and signalling road junctions, upgrading roads, drainages and markets, among others. How do you intend to achieve all this amid budget cuts?
We are already in discussions with the Ministry of Finance to see how they can adjust our budget. We are also in talks with the Uganda Road Fund to identify more areas where they can help us with budget allocations, especially in light of the recent rains which have since damaged our roads. We also intend to lobby Parliament to reconsider increasing our budget.

Kampala city today is grappling with uncoordinated physical planning. For instance, illegal structures have been built on sewer lines and road reserves. Street vendors are everywhere in downtown Kampala and the unregulated transport system which is a major cause of traffic jam. What plans do you have to sort out this mess?
This is something we need to administer over time. I think the greater percentage of buildings in the city are illegal and there were reasons for that.

It was very difficult to get approved plans at first. The land tenure system, for instance Bibanja owners cannot get their plans approved before getting the consent of the land owner. That is still a major problem. So people end up setting up buildings that are semi-permanent. But we have now tightened the noose on approval of any structure. Of course, because we are still thin on the ground, some people still find a way of doing so, especially during night and weekend hours. But we are now partnering with the community to be our eyes to ensure that no illegal buildings come up.

As far as boda bodas and taxis are concerned, it is a major concern and needs urgent attention. [We are looking at] moving from taxis to buses which carry more people. But it is a process because there are private service providers in the transport sector who derive their livelihood from there so you cannot easily push them away before engaging them on either to be employed in the new system or buy shares.

We are looking at all these possibilities and there are those who have realised that it is not sustainable anymore to transport passengers by taxi. Kampala’s day population is about 4.5 million people while the resident population is 1.5m.
All these people cannot move by taxi. We are already in discussion with at least three bus companies which we want to encourage to start operating their services in the city. We shall have to agree on modes of operation, which routes they will operate, but also work along with taxis.

For street vendors, we must provide some relief for them somewhere because we know they exist and they have small businesses. While we take them off the streets, we are trying to create some areas where vending can be allowed. We want to identify some places across all the five divisions of Kampala where they can operate.
We are also doing further analysis in the city centre on what streets can be non-motorised and when you do this, you create spaces for street vendors because vehicles will not be there. But it will be done in a manner that is more modern.
For instance, they can have neatly movable kiosks which can be put in a row and then give them some time to operate. We are working on this scheme and it will be ready by May this year.

Minister Kamya halted the demolition of illegal structures pending consultations with stakeholders. How far have these consultations gone and when are we seeing action to remove illegal structures?
We are still reviewing the list of 500 illegal structures. In that list, you will find there are kiosks, temporary structures, semi-permanent ones and some robust buildings. We are trying to review it [so] that our action is different according to different structures.
If a kiosk is badly erected, it can easily be taken away. But if someone has put up a major structure in the road reserve, we could give that person a fine but that building can exist. There are some which are not safe for human habitation and we shall demolish them. I think we shall be done with review of these structures by end of this month.

Where do you think the previous city planners went wrong as far as planning was concerned?
What I know is that there was a structural plan for Kampala which is basically the physical development plan but it was not followed and I think that was the major mistake.
There is a lot of political interference in Kampala and the previous city administrators were overpowered by politicians hence we ended up having a city which is growing up organically without following any structure.

What will you do to reorganise the city?
We have made a new structural plan which we intend to follow and I think going forward, things are not going to be done haphazardly but so many wrongs have happened and we now have to grapple with how to rectify them. Following that physical development plan, there is going to be a detailed one which is like the neighbourhood plan. It is like looking at an area at a micro level.
The physical development plan or structural plan is the macro one. We shall have to do the micro, looking at how these particular areas will look like and we have started piloting some areas because we got some money from the European Union to do some detailed plan for certain areas in the city.
We want to expand so that we cover Kampala and that is the vehicle we want to use to reorganise communities. It is not going to be easy because some communities are slums while some are Bibanja owners. We shall first engage these people before we implement this plan.

There is an issue of shortage of public toilets in the city. KCCA announced that all private buildings with toilets should convert them for free public toilets but the owners protested. Has the issue been resolved? When are we seeing new free public toilets?
We have some projects which are currently running and we have obtained some funding from organisations in the sanitation sector such as the Bill and Melinda Gates among others. Under this funding, there is a provision of building many toilets. The challenge will be getting space. But some of the construction of these facilities will commence soon. For instance, we are building one in the newly acquired Kasubi market land to serve traders and in some parts of the city slums.

What are your plans for the city’s swelling population?
I think that matter cannot be resolved by KCCA alone because those people come from places to access city services because Kampala is apparently the only city where you can access better health facilities, banking services and education, among others.
So, this matter has to be resolved in cooperation with all the surrounding areas such as Wakiso, Nansana, Kira and Mukono, among others. It is a challenging issue which has to be done with the Ministry of Lands since it is responsible for urbanisation.
We have a strategy and it is called the greater Kampala economic strategy which was compiled by World Bank and we are trying to use it to formulate projects. The other infrastructural project that we are yet to embark on will focus on greater Kampala with an aim of decongesting the city.

Seven hundred out of the 1,100 KCCA employees are temporary with a four-month contract. Most of these employees hold senior positions and there has been public concern about their recruitment. What will you do about this to ensure a streamlined staff?
We are working with the Ministry of Public Service and the Public Service Commission and they have approved our organisation structure. Recently, they approved our job descriptions and the next step is for them to now regularise these jobs.
However, these posts are going to be competed for, including the incumbents. I think we should have an update from Public Service by February.

Observers claim that you are being fronted by Ms Kamya, arguing that you could end up being under her “armpits.”
I have been in this institution for seven-and-a-half years as director of engineering and technical services and I have worked before as both acting executive director and deputy executive director, respectively. So I think I am eligible for this post and its not just about being fronted.

Minister Kamya last re-tabled the KCCA Amendment Bill to Parliament which, among others, seeks to trim the powers of both the Lord Mayor and the executive director. Do you support this amendment?
Honestly, I don’t have the details of that amendment. There are some amendments that were proposed and I think the matter is currently before Parliament. So, I think I will be able to brief you at the right time. It was not actually about reducing the powers of the Lord Mayor and the executive director. It was about fostering the working relations because the previous law had very many misinterpretations.

How would you rate Ms Musisi’s performance as the first executive director of KCCA?
I think she did very well. She did a great job. I was part of it and I know that we achieved a lot during that period.

What type of Kampala do you want to leave behind when you retire from KCCA?
I want to leave behind a city that is built on the achievements that we have made over years. One of the problems that I really think that I should solve in Kampala is traffic jam. I think if we sort out congestion through having good public transport in the city, this is something that will touch everybody and it is something which I feel I must achieve before I retire.