Teachers, health workers miss out on juicy KCCA salaries

By J. Semakula, J. Masaba and Vicky Wandawa

Teachers and health workers working under the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) can now give up hope of benefiting from the juicy salaries the body will pay the rest of the staff.

According to the minister in charge of Kampala, Wilson Muruli Mukasa, the decision has been made that only staff who are directly employed by KCCA be considered under the authority’s new salary structure.

“Teachers and health workers are under different service commissions, so they have not been considered in the new salary arrangement for KCCA,” Muruli said.

Following the endorsement of the KCCA salary structure by President Yoweri Museveni last year, teachers and health workers under the authority got high hopes for a better pay.

But their hopes started fading early this year when KCCA and the Ministry of Public Service cleared other staff to be paid under the new salary structure and left them out.

KCCA spokesperson Peter Kaujju had, however, said that the authority and the Ministry of Public Service were in talks to determine the fate of the teachers and health workers. Kaujju promised that they would come out with a position later.

The minimum pay in KCCA, for workers like a tea girl, is sh1.1m

According to the authority’s salary structure, the executive director, Jennifer Musisi, is the topmost paid, bagging sh36m, followed by her deputy, who takes home sh27m. The directors earn sh22m and the Lord Mayor sh16m.

The rest of the other staff with degrees, diplomas and certificates earn between sh2m and sh11m.

The exclusion of the teachers and health workers from the KCCA salary structure has not been received well among the leaders of workers and unions.

MP Sewungu Gonzaga, a teacher’s activist in the House, said KCCA was exercising double standards.

He said he would meet teachers in Kampala to forge a way forward about the matter. Dr Richard Walyomo, a district medical officer, Makindye Division, also called it unfair.

Dr. Samuel Lyomoki said: “This is a sign that certain people want to divert the tax payers’ money. It is wrong. How can administrators be paid more than implementers?

We shall storm the KCCA offices and have the matter brought before parliament. ”

There were earlier fears that if teachers and health workers were included on the KCCA salary structure, it would stretch the wage bill of the country.