By John Okello Lapok
In 2016, President Museveni blamed then Kampala Capital City Authority [KCCA] Executive Director Jennifer Semakula Musisi for engineering his traumatising political loss in the city. The NRM presidential candidate not only badly lost to the opposition, but even his lower cadre candidates in the city elective positions were badly trounced.
Museveni sat at his home in Rwakitura and declared that it was Jennifer Musisi’s highhanded work ethic that forced Kampalans to deny him votes. Whereas the Head of State didn’t suggest Musisi was a bad performer, he simply blamed her for being ruthless in the way she implemented KCCA programs/projects leaving many people especially ‘survivors’ like street vendors in total tears all the time. He said Musisi seemed to be insensitive towards low income earners and her focus favored mainly the ‘haves’!
So incensed he was, that he decided to carry out a secret investigation into KCCA activities through a group called ‘Team Thorough’ which was allegedly aligned to Maama Janet Museveni. The team according to inspectors discovered two major issues.
One was about public health issues zeroing on public toilets in the city. Here, according to inspectors, it was discovered that whereas President Museveni had directed that these facilities be for free as a give back to the less-privileged in the city, the directive was never being fully implemented. It was only in selected locations like that of City square where such a directive was accepted. In other places, people were actually paying exorbitant toilet fees. Shockingly, even at those places where the directive was being partially implemented, the facilities were squeezed and very dirty, contributing to a number of infections ravaging those who visited them. At times there was no water and the queues on those toilets were as if people were going to heaven!
“At City Square, people would line up for hours because they wanted to use this facility. The women’s side was filthy and there was no water. Many people suffered infections whenever they visited those facilities” explained an inspector, adding that cases of human faeces being littered on city roads were also on the rise at the time.
“Can you imagine even on Entebbe road, one would find such stench yet it’s the gateway to the outside world? How about the visitors? Nile Avenue [road] was the epicenter for this vice. Those who clean the city roads were always encountering such situations” explained an inspector, adding that the stench and infections that came with visiting city public toilets contributed much on the occurrence of open defecation on the city roads.
Secondly, Museveni was informed that the brutality meted on people during KCCA operations had never been experienced. This was coupled with stealing of people’s merchandize under the guise of enforcement. Museveni was told that actually, many law enforcement men and women in KCCA were running huge stalls especially in Nakawa division without investing even a single coin. The merchandize they grabbed from people, would alleged find its way to Nakawa and became stock for their shops. Unfortunately, as they did all this, the enforcement teams were donning Yellow uniform, a color that even the NRM uses. This therefore, was viewed as an indirect strategy to decampaign the President and his ruling party by moles in KCCA law enforcement.
“It reached a time where yellow was not entertained anywhere in the city. It was associated with brutality because of the KCCA enforcement. People [even innocent ones] were being attacked for wearing yellow because of the actions of KCCA enforcement” explained an inspector, adding that this is why some women were even undressed around Kikuubo during those days as they donned Yellow.
Because of this highhandedness by KCCA enforcement, intelligence recommended that the Yellow uniform in KCCA be banned and a new uniform be introduced. This is how the current blue and black uniforms came into play!
Museveni not only decreed on the change of uniform, but also fired KCCA ED Jennifer Musisi.
Even here however, the President insisted that the new ED [read Dorothy Kisaka] needed to address mainly the issue of public health. Kisaka started by razing down all Jennifer Musisi’s legacy including all ‘illegal’ stalls and structures she had set up in down town. Somehow, she tried to pull people back towards government side. However, she forgot that Museveni’s core area of interest in the KCCA ED was Public Health improvement, tackling garbage collection and toilet facilities because according to him, these directly concern the wanainchi.
“Littering the city was the main challenge the President was facing. There was open defecation on certain streets and garbage was much. He kept getting reports that people were being charged fees and others were shunning the free toilets because they were dirty and small” explained an inspector.
Inspectors added that Muslims even complained to him that some of their people were being forced to be in constant fasting mode because the toilet facilities were unfit and yet people didn’t have money to pay for private toilets in case they ate or drunk anything to survive.
The mother of all troubles finally landed on Kisaka following the nasty incident of Kiteezi where garbage collapsed on people’s homes leaving scores dead. This sealed her fate as the President not only fired her, but also ensured that she goes to the University of Understanding-Luzira. He finally appointed Hajati Sharifah Buzeki as the KCCA Executive Director, dumping Frank Rusa who was the acting ED for three months.
Following her appointment to that position, Buzeki has brought smiles on Museveni’s face by tackling his core area of interest-Public Health. Under this, she has improved on the public toilets, making them modern and equipped with all necessary facilities. She has also expanded on the interior facilities with water flowing steadily in them, regular cleaning, and plumbing unlike in the past! The facilities are well lit, tiled, secured and spacious with instructions on keeping proper hygiene. On the side of garbage, Buzeki has adopted a pro-people strategy called ‘WEYONJE CAMPAIGN’ where she directly interacts with wanainchi on how to keep clean. Every Saturday, she raids particular villages/cells in Kampala City Divisions and engages in community clean-up exercises where she sensitizes people on the vitality of keeping a clean and livable City. That way, according to Kampalans, she has directly touched on their desire for a people-centered approach as opposed to top-bottom approach. Little wonder, Museveni found it easier to hold his nomination rally in Kampala and crowds attended!
