Undercover team exposes corruption at KCCA

CRIME | INVESTIGATION

Rubaga division is one of the areas in Kampala without organised settlements.

To build a house in some areas, one has to bribe the division's law enforcement officers to avoid being stopped because of lack of an approved plan.  A Sunday Vision team investigated how this is done.

The arrest of some Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) officials in connection with demolition of St. Peters Church Ndeeba is an eye opener on some of the controversial enforcement activities by KCCA.

Richard Naika, 42, a civil engineer and inspector of building in Rubaga municipality, has been pinned in yet another case of demolishing rentals at Mutundwe, injuring tenants and destroying their belongings.

Naika is one of those who were remanded together with the businessman Dodoviko Mwanje on charges of conspiracy to commit an offence arising from demolition of the Ndeeba church on August 9, 2020.

As Naika battles Ndeeba church demolition case, investigations into the Mutundwe case is ongoing. 

Fahad Nakibinge, who accuses Naika of flouting demolition guidelines claims that Naika led a team of KCCA enforcement on December 17, 2019 and demolished rentals worth sh400m with no notice.

On the same day, the enforcement team demolished a perimeter wall belonging to Simon Ddungu on grounds of having no approved plan from KCCA. 

It later turned out that in those two cases, the victims had boiling conflicts with some of their neighbours and it is alleged that those neigbhours had warned to use KCCA officials to demolish the structures.

Actually, one of the neigbhours accused in Nakibinge's case is a KCCA employee.

Joseph Mubanda, the LC1 chairperson of Mutundwe II, said before those controversial demolitions, they had intervened in a conflict involving Ddungu and his neigbhour.

"Ddungu claimed that his land was being encroached on by a neighbour who wanted to create a road leading to his house.

A surveyor was called in and it was established that the land in question belonged to Ddungu and we ruled in his favour.

Ddungu went ahead to construct a perimeter wall, but we were surprised a few months later when KCCA enforcement brought down the wall without a notice," Mubanda narrated.

He added: "I feel there was malice in that case because the enforcement team even tried to destroy Ddungu's small garden on the controversial land until I asked them whether Ddungu needed an approved plan before he started that garden." Mubanda said he was surprised to see only three structures being demolished in an area where majority of residents have structures with no approved plans from KCCA. 

"The plan for my house was not approved by KCCA. How did their enforcement team miss it and demolish only those where there were conflicts?" Mubanda wondered.

A day earlier, the same enforcement team, allegedly led by Naika, demolished Safari Miruho's house at Kigobe - Lugala in Rubaga Municipality.

Miruho also claims that he had a conflict with his neighbour, who had threatened to raze the structure.

An investigation into some of those cases established that many people in Kampala construct houses with no approved plans from KCCA.

What they usually do is to bribe some of the enforcement officers who allow them to go ahead with the construction.

They usually pay between sh100,000 and sh5m, depending on the area and nature of construction. 

Our undercover team set out to establish how the racket works.

The team concentrated on Rubaga, where numerous cases of controversial demolitions have occurred.

KCCA man asks for sh700,000 

After taking a number of days observing what was happening at KCCA offices at Rubaga, our team discovered that there were middlemen who usually connect people seeking services to the responsible officials for a commission off the bribe.

In the first week of August 2020, the Sunday Vision team identified a family to find out what exactly happens.

The family wanted to construct rental houses at Busega in Kabaale Zone and sought to go through ‘Window II' to start the construction.

The measurements of four decimals piece of land which they intend to develop does not favour them if they are to go through proper channels of securing an approved plan from KCCA. 

This family told Sunday Vision that they did not have a land title, which also complicates the process.

The family said the two factors had forced them to apply improper methods.

After four days of observation, the Sunday Vision were led to a middleman, only identified as Ssenyonjo, who hangs around KCCA offices at Rubaga. 

Ssenyonjo asked the Sunday Vision team what it wanted and whether it had money to facilitate the official who was going to do it a favour.

The Sunday Vision team answered in the affirmative. Ssenyonjo asked the team to wait for lunch time when the officials were out of their offices and down in the canteen.

Sunday Vision later learnt that many of the deals are concluded in the canteen during break and lunch time.

Ssenyonjo later came for the team and led it to a table where a gentleman was sitting.

The gentleman was enjoying a glass of juice. He asked if Sunday Vision had a sale agreement for the land to be developed and it was shown to to him.

It looked like Ssenyonjo had briefed the gentleman who he regularly addressed as "Kamanda" (commander).

The gentleman went straight to the point and asked how much money Sunday Vision could afford, so that he helps to start the construction without interruptions from KCCA enforcement.

The Sunday Vision team were hesitant to tell him any figure. In a hurried way, the gentleman said we need to valve his time because there was another group he had to meet after that.

He said a day earlier, he had arrested young men who were illegally constructing a house in Nateete and confiscated wheelbarrows and other equipment used in construction.

He said the family of those young men was pleading to have them released and equipment returned.

He paused a bit and asked how much we can afford. We went silent again.

He resorted to the sale agreement and analysed the sale price. He later concluded that "Okusinziira ku bbeeyi gye mwagulirako poloti eno, mugenda kumpa emitwalo nsanvu, mbayambe," (Basing on the amount you bought this plot, you will give me sh700,000 and then I will help you)."

We did not hesitate. We asked for his name such that we could easily find him when we take the money and he responded that, "Bwe mujja, mubuuza Richard. (When you come, you ask for Richard)."

But before we could go, he asked whether we did not move with any money to show seriousness.

We gave him sh50,000 and asked him to write his telephone number on the envelope that contained a sale agreement which was still on his table.

He wrote the number and on checking its registration details, Richard Twimukye, was the name.

As we match out of the canteen, another young man came running after us. We got an impression that he was watching what had transpired between us and ‘Kamand' and he told us that whereas that man works with KCCA, he is not the overall person to okay any construction.

This young man told us that he doubted whether ‘Kamanda' will really help us and that we stood the risk of him taking our money, only for our houses be demolished.

He advised us to look for one Naika, who he said was the overall person. He directed us to the office of Nailka on second floor, but unfortunately, Naika was not in the office at the time.

Busy man with two offices  

The young man said Naika was a busy man and he had two offices; one at KCCA headquarters at City Hall and another one at Rubaga.

He said if we failed to find him at Rubaga, we could meet him at City Hall. He gave us Naika's mobile number to help us in linking up with him.

On August 1, 2020, we set out to meet Naika. It was the same day we had promised ‘Kamanda' that we would be bringing him the money.

Unfortunately, we did not find him in the office; we instead found one Mike, who shares the same office with Naika at Rubaga.

We asked Mike whether it was possible to meet Naika. He asked what the issue was but we told him that someone had particularly referred us to Naika.

He then gave us the mobile number of the person who would help us to get to Naika. To our surprise, the mobile number was for Ssenyonjo who had earlier led us to ‘Kamanda'.

We were a bit hesitant to meet Ssenyonjo, but as we were moving through a corridor we came face to face with Ssenyonjo.

We had no way out and we decided to face him with a new request. Astonishingly, Ssenyonjo was not remembering us and as we were fidgeting on how to approach him, he went first and asked us, "Muyambiddwa? (Have you been helped?)."

After observing that he was not remembering us, we explained how Mike has referred us to him so that he could link us to Naika.

Ssenyonjo was hesitant and wondered why Mike would refer any matter to Naika yet both of them pay almost the same role in that office.

He gave us a tough condition that we need to first take him to the plot which we intend to develop and assess the amount of money we must pay and then he would convince Naika to meet us.

We were not comfortable with taking Ssenyonjo to the land because we would be blowing the cover of the family we were working with.

The Sunday Vision team decided to go back to Naika's office the following day and try our luck. We had been told that he usually reports for work early morning and later goes to the field.

We were the first to reach Rubaga division office before employees reported for work and we waited outside. Naika was one of those who came in first.

We went straight to his office and we were lucky that even Mike who had seen us a day earlier had not yet reported for work.

At that, time we did not know that Naika was a troubled man. The story of the demolition of Ndeeba church was everywhere, and Naika was one of those being investigated.

He looked calm though and gave us a good reception. We explained what we wanted and he promised to help us.

He, however, guided us to first secure a certificate from Buganda Land Board (BLB) because the plot was on Kabaka's land. He told us that after securing that certificate, we should return to him and he assured us that we would be helped.

As we were in the process of securing a BLB certificate, a breaking story hammered us that Naika had been arrested over demolition of Ndeeba church.

He was paraded in Makindye court on August 20, 2020 and charged together with the acting director of physical planning, Ivan Katongole who allegedly cleared the demolition.

Naika, Mwanje and others were remanded to Kitalya Prison as they wait for hearing of their bail application.

Nakibinge, Miruho and others who have been complaining about Naika are now optimistic that with what happened at Ndeeba church, probably their complaints will get to the attention of the top officials at KCCA.

Daniel Nuwabine Muhummuza, the KCCA spokesperson, said they do not condone bribery and advised members of the public to go through proper channels of securing approved plans to avoid issues with KCCA enforcement which has a role of ensuring compliance to building regulations.

He explained that before demolishing any structure, the owner is summoned at KCCA and given 14 days to defend himself or herself.

If a decision of demolishing is taken, the owner and tenants (if any) are given a written notice to vacate.

In the case of the Mutundwe demolition, however, Rest Nakibirige, Hannifer Mirembe and Rose Nakkanwagi, who were tenants, claim there was no notice and were caught by surprise.

They are also crying for justice because many of their belongings were destroyed in the process.

Nuwabine, however, assured those with complaints that KCCA has a mechanism of handling complaints against their staff and advised those with concerns to report them at City Hall for redress.

We learnt that the Mutundwe case is currently being investigated by Police officers attached to KCCA, but Nuwabine was hesitant to comment on the matter.

Among those being investigated is a KCCA employee and a resident of Mtundwe accused of influence peddling.          

Three ways in which the racket at Rubaga offices works

Most of the corruption is in the planning and the law enforcement office and the victims are usually people who want to build houses.

There are brokers stationed outside the offices who act as the link to the officials responsible for decision-making. Most of the people who seek help are people who want to build houses without approved plans.

Some people use the officials to harass neighbours with whom they have conflicts. For example, one can bribe an enforcement officer to raze down another person's structure without due process.

This story was done with support of Democratic Governance Facility (DGF)