Rugunda to meet opposition over Lukwago's fate

By Alfred Wandera

The opposition and the Prime Minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda have agreed to meet next week to iron out the standing stalemate between Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and the ousted Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago.

The Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Wafula Oguttu, has confirmed to New Vision in a telephone interview that he had fixed an appointed with Rugunda to chat a way forward in having Lukwago reinstated to his office at City Hall.

"I am meeting the Prime Minister next week. That is all I can reveal for now. We know what we want and we shall put it to the Prime Minister," said Wafula, when asked what the agenda of the meeting will be.

Rugunda had told this newspaper on Tuesday that he would meet the opposition soon, but was non-committal on the date for the meeting.

The Prime Minister said he would only provide much detail after the meeting, urging media to stop reporting on the matter based on speculation.

Lukwago said he was still waiting for the communication from government to open his office, adding that government had already reneged on its promise to clear his salary arrears before the end of last December.

"Already the agreement to clear my salary arrears (sh208m) has been violated. They (Government) promised to clear me by end of December but up to now I have not received communication from them. I am waiting for them to open my office because they locked it illegally," said Lukwago.

Last month, Parliament Deputy Speaker, Jacob Oulanyah, directed the Prime Minister who is the Leader of Government Business in Parliament and the Leader of Opposition in Parliament to initiate negotiations to settle the KCCA furore.

This followed an initial rejection by the House to pass a $175m (sh500b) World Bank infrastructure loan for KCCA until an agreement to the political stalemate at City Hall is reached.

Acting on the stalemate in Parliament to approve KCCA's infrastructure loan, Rugunda announced that Lukwago will be reinstated next month so as to have a political structure in place to approve KCCA budgets before being presented to Parliament.

Last month, Wafula said KCCA was headed for bigger trouble if the stalemate is not resolved, saying currently the authority is operating on illegal budgets.

"KCCA's budgets are supposed to be approved by a governance structure at City Hall before they are brought to Parliament. But what we are seeing now is breach of the law where KCCA brings its budgets directly to Parliament for approval without undergoing scrutiny of a governance structure," said Oguttu.

"The Speaker of Parliament has warned that nothing about KCCA will be entertained on the floor of Parliament if the mess is not resolved," added Oguttu.

The governance structure at KCCA is politically headed by the Lord Mayor, who was impeached by KCCA councillors in 2013, acting on the KCCA Tribunal report that found him guilty of abuse of office, incompetence, misconduct and failure to convene meetings of the Authority without reasonable cause.