By Henry Sekanjako and Paul Kiwuuwa

KAMPALA - The executive director Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has defended the rebranding of KCCA’s new logo, saying the old logo by the defunct KCC was being used to defraud people.

“The rebranding was necessary because many former KCC staff continued to masquerade as KCCA staff using the old brand and image. The public needed protection,” Jennifer Musisi explained.

She added: “The old image was associated with corruption, mismanagement, poor service delivery. This whole process of change and communication of the said change falls within the KCCA public relations Section 19 (p) of the KCC Act mandates the executive director to implement”.

Musisi appeared before the parliament’s committee on public service and local government on Monday to react to allegations by Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago.

The city mayor is accusing Musisi of single-handedly seeking to determine the vision, mission and core values of the KCCA and dropping the logo of the capital city.

However according to Musisi, who is also the accounting officer of KCCA, the authority had continuously urged the management to expedite the rebranding process , saying requests for ceremonial robes by the political leaders, staff uniforms among other items were to await the rebranding.

“The last stage of the process was rebranding, which had to be completed by December 31, 2012.

“KCCA, through the procurement process, invited bidders to submit their bids for the rebranding exercise and four firms picked up bid documents,” Musisi explained.

She further explained that KCCA management arranged workshops to engage the political leaders on the rebranding and wrote to the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, requesting for a date for the Authority councilors to attend but that no response was given.

Kampala Lord Mayor, Erias Lukwago (R), his deputy Suleiman Kidandala and management team before the local government and public service committee of Parliament on Jan. 28, 2013. PHOTO/Rogers Okwany

Budgeted for?

Lukwago however told the committee on Monday that he convened a council meeting to discuss the rebranding of KCCA but to his surprise most of the councilors dodged the sitting, citing influence from the KCCA executive director.

“700 million shillings was spent on the change of the KCCA logo. Where they got the funds, I don’t know because it was never provided for in the budget,” said Lukwago.

KCCA executive director Musisi put the entire budget for the rebranding at sh49m, fully funded under the Kampala institutional and infrastructural development programme (KIIDP).

KCCA rebranded its logo in December last year under intense opposition from different people.

Meanwhile, Lukwago applead to Parliament to prevail over Musisi saying she was usurping his powers as the political head of KCCA.

Section 6 of the KCCA Act 2010 defines the composition of the Authority as being headed by the Lord Mayor, his deputy and the councilors.

“It is unfortunate to note that notwithstanding, these provisions, the executive director has assumed all my powers and functions of the Authority,” Lukwago stated in his petition to Parliament.

He also accused Musisi of having a militia group who torture vendors found selling merchandise on Kampala streets in what he called safe houses.

However Musisi refuted the allegations, saying the alleged “torture chambers” [safe houses] found along Plot 1 on Ssezibwa road Upper Nakasero and Plot 2 Mabua road Kololo are houses meant for storage of impounded goods pending disposal.