Musisi lists her prorities in the new term

The Executive Director of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Jennifer Semakula Musisi has set out improvement in service delivery in the education, health and transport sectors in the city as her priorities for the next three years, following the renewal of her contract.

In a television interview earlier in the day, Musisi said efforts will be directed at improving the quality of services at health facilities and schools, particularly those offering Universal Primary Education (UPE) and creating an efficient and seamless transport system in the city.

She noted that though the Authority 'is doing much better than in the beginning', most of the challenges that the city faces, come down to management efficiency, capacity and funding,  all pointing to service delivery.

"The city has 79 UPE schools; many of them dilapidated catering for over 80,000 pupils amidst funding challenges. We get sh10, 000 per child per year as government contribution. However we have been able to make changes in the schools through renovation and realizing that the government purse is constrained," she said.

To make ends meet, Musisi said KCCA has been reaching out to the private sector, businesses, international organizations and individuals, asking them to help out through several activities that have taken place to support our schools.

Transport
Highlighting the transport challenges that the city faces, Musisi said the growing population is the main cause thus the need to find a remedy.
"There are 4.5 plus million people in Kampala during the day and at night we have 2m. All these require a very efficient transport system which KCCA cannot afford yet.

The parking space is constrained. Our plan going forward is to focus even more on building infrastructure and development," she said adding that the Authority has in the past six years done 200kms of new roads, complete with drainage, lighting, cycling space and greening.

As part of addressing the congestion in the city, she noted that plans are underway to do over 100km of new roads, which are wider, including removing roundabouts and having traffic managed electronically.

"We are looking for funding both internally and externally to enable us implement the project," she said, adding that she is pleased with the progress the Authority has made in the areas of financial management, revenue collection, waste disposal, compliance levels and 'basically getting people to take city administration serious, thus exposing citizens to what a capital city should be.'

The law
She pointed that KCCA was not implementing new regulations, ordinances and laws, noting that those which are being implemented have been in place for decades only that they had never been implemented and people were not aware about them.

"When it comes to the waste ordinance for example in 2010, people were not aware about it. The ordinance regulating activities on the streets including the preaching, vending, public address systems, advertising, mobile activations were all 2006 ordinances. These are laws and ordinances that have been on the shelves for decades, unattended to. I was not even there when the KCCA Act was made. I was not actively involved," she said, adding that "People need to understand that the problems of Uganda cannot be solved by only Kampala."

"The focus in the next three years is technical in terms of improving growth and environment of the city. You have to break the eggs if you want an omelet," Musisi said noting that at the moment lots of people are sending appreciation messages for the Bukoto street, which has recently been done.