''KCCA should change its mode of work''

 

KAMPALA - Eleven central urban council councilors led by their mayor, Godfrey Nyakana, are crying foul over “unfriendly treatment” by the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) technical team.

 

It was not clear why 23 of the 34 division councilors did not attend the meeting.

 

The councilors allege that they have been rendered idle with their work taken over by the technical team headed by KCCA executive director, Jennifer Musisi.

 

They cited incidents in which Musisi and the technical team have inspected road works in their constituencies without formal communication.

 

During a press conference held at the central division offices in Kampala, Nyakana said: “I am calling upon KCCA to change its mode of work. Three years down the road, we cannot perform any duties which we are mandated to.”

 

 

 “When President Yoweri Museveni was opening the New Taxi Park, I was not given the platform. It was instead the public relations officer who spoke,” councilor Batanda of Old Kampala said.

 

“We have written to the Speaker to Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga and the Kampala minister, Frank Tumwebaze, but we have been denied audience. We do not know how much money has been collected in our division,” councilor David Baguma of Shahuriyako said.

 

He said the duty of the councillors is to give the electorate accountability, adding that the town clerk has never presented to them any budget.

 

“We have been suppressed. I was even blocked from constructing a latrine for my people in Kisenyi 1 parish. KCCA claims that it was not my duty,” Salim Uhuru said.

 

Others who expressed similar sentiments at the press conference were councilor Geoffrey Bahamuka (Kamwokya) and Resty Olam, the division’s deputy.

 

But councilor Alfred Ntambazi Central II said: “If they can sit in council meetings and have resolutions then they should not say that they are idle.”

 

On Tuesday, KCCA spokesperson Peter Kaujju said according to the KCCA Act 2014, the city has one accounting officer who is also the executive director.

 

And it is the responsibility of the executive director to prepare the city’s budget, he added.

 

On the issue of the budget preparation where the councilors said they were not involved, Kaujju said the budget is prepared starting from the parish level and the mayors are also involved in the process.