By John Okello Lapok
For over a decade now, the ruling National Resistance Movement had been a political orphan in Kampala. And yet, the seat of the President (Executive), the Legislature and the Judiciary are all located here, let alone the NRM Secretariat!
In 2016, for example, President Museveni, upon losing terribly in Kampala, publicly decreed that his loss and that of NRM in the Capital was courtesy of the high-handedness of then KCCA Executive Director Jeniffer Semakula Musisi, especially in the way she executed her policies in the city.
Not that the policies were bad, but the approach used to implement them was characterised by brutality and insensitivity to people’s social being.
After knifing her, the President, through a secret entity called ‘Team Thorough’ carried out investigations in the City to find out underlying issues affecting him and NRM and also prescribed solutions.
The team informed him that KCCA had invented a YELLOW uniform which its Law Enforcement Team was wearing. This uniform allegedly turned into a symbol of brutality and theft, terrorising people in the city in the name of enforcement. Not only did the team brutalise, but they also went ahead and ‘looted’ people’s property in the name of enforcement. Its officers allegedly became extremely wealthy, with several of them starting up shops in various locations, mainly in Nakawa Division, without investing a single coin.
“The more you confiscated from the streets, the more merchandise you had in your shop. This made several people cry and turned against Museveni. KCCA would confiscate items without any record, and worse still, they did this while wearing a yellow uniform. Therefore, yellow became a symbol of brutality and misery in the eyes of Kampalans. People hated it and whoever associated with it” explained an Inspector.
We are told the Team which was led by a one, Pastor Mbabazi (now working in State House) recommended that the KCCA enforcement group be disbanded and also the uniform be changed to give birth to a new face of KCCA among Kampalans. That’s how KCCA obtained a new uniform colored-Blue and black trousers.
However, even after firing Musisi, the political misery against NRM in Kampala continued with the ruling party being sidelined on almost all elective positions in the city right from parliamentary to local level. Just in 2021, the NRM managed to scoop the position of Central Division chairman under Salim Uhuru while majority seats went to opposition mainly NUP.
Inspectors said his strategists continued to scratch their heads on how to reclaim the city after over a decade without any parliamentary seat for the ruling party. Museveni appointed Dorothy Kisaka whom he also fired disgracefully especially following the Kiteezi tragedy where over 34 people were buried by collapsing garbage. The President blamed Kisaka for negligence and even threw her in jail, although just recently, he named her among the 21-member team of prominent Basoga to help him deliver the Busoga Vote. This team also included Daudi Migereko, SPA Florence Mutyabule and was headed by former Vice President Specioza Kazibwe with Kisaka as their accounting officer.
Back at KCCA, the President appointed a firebrand lady from Busoga Hajati Sharifah Buzeki. Barely a year in that office, Sharifah Buzeki came with a serving-with-the- people approach (bottom-up) as opposed to serving the people approach (up-bottom) which most EDs have always applied.
Under this approach, Buzeki goes down to the locals, get their issues, devise solutions and also implement them together where necessary. She has even gone ahead and decentralized the KCCA budget, allowing Divisions to work on most of their issues but file regular reports to KCCA for monitoring and accountability.
Through her flagship campaign dubbed ‘Weyonje’ (keep clean), the Executive Director has been a regular visitor to all Divisions of Kampala every Saturday where she goes deep in the slums and works with wanainchi in cleaning their areas. Here, she gets involved in sweeping, garbage collection, drainage channel cleaning and many more exercises aimed at sensitizing the masses on sanitation and hygiene to avoid diseases.
She’s driven by the desire to achieve a livable city!
Surprisingly, her campaigns are also attended by even the opposition, making her a unifier not only at KCCA headquarters but also down in the villages.
In the past, whereas the former EDs always had running battles with the politicians at KCCA including the Lord Mayor, Speaker and Councilors (and sometimes even Ministers), Buzeki’s appointment turned KCCA into a peace mission of sorts with no rumors of infighting anymore. In fact, we’re told if there is anyone close to Buzeki, then it is KCCA Speaker and Councilor for Makindye-Hajati Zahara Luyirika (NUP) thanks to her all-embracing leadership style! Zahara is now MP-elect for Makindye West!
Coming to handling vendors, Buzeki has ensured that instead of evicting them, she persuades them. She has created space for thousands of vendors in KCCA markets and keeps reminding those still on the streets to take up those stalls, something vendors have listened to and in turn, this translated into free support for the ruling party.
The other area is physical infrastructure, mainly roads. Under her tenure, all Kampalans have seen 100% change in the road infrastructure. Almost all roads in and around Kampala have been opened and are under construction. Not only are they being constructed, but the kind of material being used is also of standard quality capable of countering the longstanding problem of city flooding. Under this, Buzeki and her engineers discovered that some of the road equipment like culverts used those days, were either wrong or out-fashioned. According to Buzeki most of the roads were constructed using circular culverts which she says are too small to handle the water whenever it rains hence the flooding. She has now opted for box culverts which are bigger enough to handle the water. This, coupled with regular cleaning of drainage channels, explains why floods in the city now take a few minutes to clear as opposed to those days when it took hours and hours, some even with fatalities!
Aidah Namusoke, a resident of Namungoona in Lubaga division and operates a foodstuff stall, said this time round, Museveni was able to get something because of the work of KCCA.
“For the first time, I came close to the KCCA ED. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The woman visited and started cleaning with the residents in Lubaga. It was unprecedented because all the EDs we saw were moving in dark-tinted cars with military escorts. We only watched them on TVs” she said, adding that this time round, Museveni and NRM were destined to grab something. She even prophesied that at Division level, there’s a likelihood some might be won by NRM. In the just concluded parliamentary elections, Museveni’s NRM secured three seats, including Nakawa West (Fred Ruhindi), Kawempe South (Madinah Nsereko) and Kampala Central (KCCA minister Hajati Minsa Kabanda) while NUP got seven seats contrary to earlier elections where NRM got zeros. Watch the space!
