Kampala Capital City Authority Executive Director Jennifer Musisi yesterday announced her resignation from the helm of the body she has led for seven years. Her 21-page resignation letter to President Museveni was received by Kampala Minister Beti Kamya.
Today, Watchdog Uganda’s Stephen Kalema brings you reasons why Musisi, regarded as one of President Museveni’s ‘girls’ resigned.
Amendment of the Kampala Capital City Act 2010
Sources at Kampala Capital City Authority 2015 KCCA (Amendment) Bill, recently tabled before Parliament by Kampala junior minister Benny Namugwanya Bugembe brought about friction between Musisi and Beti Kamya. This Bill demands clipping the powers and influence of the Mayor and the Executive Director. The Bill also confirms the Minister as the most dominant person in the city. According to the object of the Bill, the amendments are intended to streamline and strengthen the governance of the Capital City in accordance with Article 5(4) of the Constitution that places the management of Kampala in the hands of the central government.
The Bill therefore seeks to amend the Kampala Capital City Act 2010, to address the apparent clash of roles and to reaffirm the powers of the central government in the administration of Kampala Capital City by bestowing more powers in the minister who is a representative of the central government.
“Musisi has become a populist; you discuss something and then she rushes to leak it to the media. We meet every Monday; us the two ministers, the undersecretary, Musisi and her team. There is always an opportunity for her to ask anything she wants but when you bypass those channels and instead run to do your work from the media, then you’ve become a politician,” Kamya once said during an interview.
This clearly shows that there has been a silent war between the principals. And rather than be left as power less as Lord Mayor Lukwago, the Executive Director decided to jump ship.
Loggerheads with politicians
Ever since her appointment to head KCCA in 2011, Musisi has been at loggerheads with almost all political heads in the city.
“One of the main challenges has been to reconcile the competing interests between political perspective/ decisions and the strategic plans, policies, regulations and work plans of KCCA technical team consequently it has been increasingly become difficult to achieve sets targets,” Musisi said in her resignation letter.
Ever since her appointment as the ED of KCCA, she has had inadequate political support to effort, she notes. As a result, many plans to improve the city have not received political support and therefore not been implemented.
For example, in 2012 Trade and Industry minister, Amelia Kyambadde likened Musisi, to a “terrorist”. This after KCCA moved in to demolish structures in Centenary Park. The structures and more still stand today.
She has also clashed with Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, former IGP Kale Kayihura among others.
Budget cuts and fund shortage
Musisi also cites the low funding to the authority and lack of staff motivation for her resignation.
“KCCA has been unable to fully meet the government and public expectations in the city development programmes and service delivery demands due to inadequate funding. Inadequate permanent staff on account of budget limitations, resulting in prolonged temporary short terms of service and job insecurity. This has led to demotivation and high turnover of highly skilled staff.”
Although Musisi, currently is the highest paid civil servant earning Shs43.7m monthly after the governor of Bank of Uganda, she says that the staff are not facilitated enough in terms of tools, equipment and vehicles.
In the financial year 2016/2017 the Authority was allocated Shs560b but it was cut and reduced to Shs400b. In financial year 2017/2018, KCCA budget was also slashed from Shs563b to Shs314b and the Shs314bn was slashed by Shs317m, in the financial year 2018/2019.
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