Ssebaggala unveils plan for Kampala as Lord Mayor

Hajj Latif Ssebaggala. Photo/Courtesy

LEADERSHIP|ELECTION

KAMPALA - As the 2021 general elections get closer, potential aspirants have started expressing interest in different elective offices. Among them is Kawempe North MP, Hajj Latif Ssebaggala who wants the Lord Mayor's office to replace Hajj Erias Lukwago.

Ssebaggala told Saturday Vision that come rain or shine; he will be the mayor at City Hall in 2021. He also unveiled his plan to revamp Kampala as soon as he assumes office.

Saturday Vision has brought you the full interview with Ssebaggala and the analysis of the front runners for the Lord Mayor's seat.

The analysis also contains why Bwanika has thrown his hut in the ring. We also talked to Lukwago for comment and don't miss how he reacted in Saturday Vision. 

Ssebaggala's plan for Kampala

I have about six issues that I think if I become the Lord Mayor, I will do. The first one, I intend to have a leadership approach that endorses projects from the grassroots.  In case of any development project in the city, KCCA must be in close touch with the people on the ground led by the LC1 chairpersons. We want to give out projects that benefit the people. We shall not sit at City Hall and decide the projects for the people of Rubaga, Mengo and Nakawa, among other areas.

Ending bickering at City Hall
Secondary, I want to bridge the gap between the technical and political wings at KCCA. The technical team is much more important in as far as working for the betterment of our city is concerned. There has been tension as far as the political and technical teams are concerned and we all know that the moment there is friction; it hinders effective service delivery. I want to use my leadership experience to end the bickering.

Boosting garbage collection
Thirdly, when you look at property rate charged by KCCA, it's too much. The law allows us to charge between1% to 12% in property rate but right now KCCA charges 6%. Note that whenever the property rates are high, the landlords will push it to the tenants and eventually they will be paying high rent. So in my administration, I intend to ensure that the property rate is reduced to at least 4% so that the land lords will also reduce rent.

Boosting garbage collection
The city has also got challenges in disposing off garbage; when you go to Kiteezi where we dispose of the garbage, the place is like hell. When you look at the charges that every shop is charged to collect garbage a month-sh30,000- at the end of the year, shop owners are paying 360,000 and yet a shop pays sh160,000 in license.

When you go out there, garbage is sorted in people's homes at sh1000 per day which is very expensive. So I want to turn garbage into money to reduce this burden. Under my tenure, someone will look at garbage as scrap. These days you can't find any metal on the streets somewhere because people know that scrap has got a market. We will team up with prospective investors and other cities to get people who can invest in garbage collection. People are forced to throw garbage in the drainage because they don't have money to pay for collection.

Improving sports

In sports, we have KCC FC, but we don't have funding for the inter division tournaments. If we put in place fully funded inter division tournaments as we have County tournaments in Buganda, we could raise a lot of talent. We could be assisting our talented sports men and women to join big tournaments. I will us the Mayor's Charitable Fund to support the disadvantaged such as: orphans and the elderly.   

More details in the e-paper here http://bit.ly/vgepaper