📷 Kiteezi garbage catastrophe, 'thorn in our flesh' – Minister Kyofatogabye

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KAMPALA - Four days after a mound of rubbish buried 24 people at the Kiteezi garbage collection centre, state minister for Kampala and metropolitan affairs Kabuye Kyofatogabye has admitted that the issue remains a thorn in their flesh.

He disclosed this while appearing before the Presidential Affairs Committee which was chaired by Alex Bakunda Byarugaba (Isingiro South, NRM). 

He was flanked by the permanent secretary office of the president Hajj Yunus Kakande.

“Kiteezi, yes, the issue of Kiteezi is on our table and it is actually now one of the thorns in our flesh. But as you recall, it started in 1996 and in 2015, a new site was acquired. After Covid, we were grappling with decommissioning Kiteezi but we need about sh26b to sh30b to do it.”

Excavators at Kiteezi garbage collapse in Kampala on Tuesday. (Credit: Simon Peter Tumwine)

“Fortunately, we no longer want open landfills, all we want now is a recycling kind of system. To operationalize Ddundu which is 135 acres, we need another sh190b to sh200b so that we can come up with whole composite systems, making bricks, energy so that we no longer have dumped garbage. Because dumped garbage normally causes such catastrophes,” he added.

Speaking on the floor of Parliament, Minister for Kampala Capital City & Metropolitan Affairs Hajjat Minsa Kabanda told MPs that they had envisaged trouble as early as 2018.

Kabanda said the garbage collection point which serves Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso districts was meant to be decommissioned but they were starved of funds.

Kabanda said the garbage collection point which serves Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso districts was meant to be decommissioned but they were starved of funds. (Credit: Simon Peter Tumwine)

“Parliament committee recommended that an allocation of sh20Bn be extended to KCCA in 2019/20...However, this remained an unfunded priority. I think at one time, you (Deputy Speaker) even visited Kiteezi landfill with Members of Parliament (MPs). And we thought that since they have seen the problems, they are going to assist us with the budget. But up to now, nothing has been done,” Minsa observed.

Fast forward, she said they have identified two investors to recycle the waste. Adding that it is not true that the Government and KCCA napped on their job.

Survivors

A statement from the Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees Lillian Aber shows that so far eighteen persons have been rescued.

Medics treat a toddler who escaped death after the Kiteezi garbage collapse. (Credit: Simon Peter Tumwine)

On the other hand, Prime Minister Robinnah Nabbanja has handed sh200,000 to each of the 54 beneficiaries in emergency shelter while President Yoweri Museveni has given each grieving family sh5 million.      

MP Nsereko’s warning

Coincidentally, on April 12, 2024, during the tabling of the ministerial policy statements, Kampala Central MP Muhamad Nsereko raised alarm about the poor disposal of the rubbish. 

He said whereas President Yoweri Museveni ordered for a dustbin every 300 meters, little has been achieved.

Uganda Red Cross Society officials received donations from Good Samaritans to help Kiteezi garbage collapse victims. This was on Tuesday at Kiteezi in Kampala. (Credit: Simon Peter Tumwine)

Copies of the ministerial policy statement seen by New Vision show that in the third quarter of the 2022/23 Financial Year (FY), Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA) collected and disposed of an average of 1,078 tons of garbage from the City daily.

“We have not achieved that, we only have about 7 functional garbage trucks for the entire city and the metropolitan area. So you can imagine the amount of garbage left in our dwelling places,” Nsereko exclaimed.

Below is a highlight of pictures of how events unfolded on Tuesday at Kiteezi garbage collapse, all photos by Simon Peter Tumwine;

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Volunteers prepare food for Kiteezi collapse victims.

Red Cross Society officials receive donations.

UPDF supplied water to the victims

Some of the victims' shelters