Lukwago moves to stop garbage collector’s deal

Kampala. Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago has said the contract for Homklin Company to collect garbage in the city should not be renewed, claiming the firm is “incompetent”.
“Several reports show that Homklin does not have recommended trucks to collect garbage from the earmarked zones. Some of the places which were hit by cholera in Kampala are managed by Homklin. As the Lord Mayor, I have already closed my door for them,” he said.
Mr Lukwago made the remarks at the weekend during the commemoration of the World Water Day in Nkere Zone, Makindye Division.
He was referring to last month’s cholera outbreak in Kabowa, Rubaga North, which is one of the zones in which Homklin handles solid waste management.
The Lord Mayor did not specify under what law he was proceeding to block renewal of the firm’s contract, a responsibility of the Contracts Committee under the 2010 Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Act.
Section 61 of the Act vests the powers of evaluation, award and termination of contracts in the city in a Contracts Committee whose members in turn are nominated by the KCCA executive director.
The law bestows on the Lord Mayor power to monitor the general administration of the city’s operations.
However, in a telephone interview yesterday, Homklin company director Isaac Katureebe accused Mr Lukwago of reaching decisions without hearing their side of the story.
“We are supposed to collect garbage from homes and not from the roadside. The problem is that KCCA has not done enough sensitisation among city residents on how to manage garbage,” he said.
Mr Jude Byansi, the KCCA’s manager for sanitation and waste management, said contracted companies are obliged to manage solid wastes in informal settlements in the capital while KCCA collects those generated by public institutions.
Mr Byansi declined to comment on Mr Lukwago’s remarks, but said a plan is in offing to re-advertise the solid waste management contracts.
He acknowledged the fact that both KCCA and the service providers are short of manpower to effectively manage the city waste.