KCCA MUST DO BETTER THAN THE DEFUNCT KCC - TRANSFORMATION NEEDS COHESION RATHER THAN POLITICAL INFIGHTING.

At the beginning of 2011 when the new 'KCC' (Now Kampala City Council Authority) management was unveiled, I was as enthusiastic as many Ugandans were to see the return of sanity in our city that had been characterized by oozing septic tanks, floods, manholes, human traffic, congestion, uncoordinated and disorganized urban management, environmental pollution as well as brutality from the defunct KCC muscle boys commonly known as 'kanyamas'.

The KCCA we anticipated is indeed an authority everyone would love to dislike depending on your expectations from the authority, not because of anything else but the way in which the authority activities have been either managed or largely mishandled. The pomp with which the authority was ushered to the city dwellers, told us of a total change of system management and a modern way of urban planning hence everyone was ready to support this new team. Capitalizing on KCC’s failure to turn the only Ugandan City (imagine after 51years of independence we still have only 1 city) that we have into an environmentally friendly and one for which any Ugandan should be proud of was what KCCA would strive on for support.

However I did think that in the process of restructuring and or re-developing the city the entire process was ill-managed with alot of hindsight since our expectation was that all stakeholders including but not limited to only urban planners and environmentalists; landlords and organized law enforcement support teams would be used to draw a master plan for the city before carrying out any activities that to this day have turned chaotic. Given a time frame of about 6-12 months feasibility studies; environmental, social, political and economic assessments; structural change simulations, FGDs and visualized planning would have been vital in building concerted but also a more comprehensive modern plan that would have seen KCCA modernize our city in a more organized and appreciative manner.

In a bid to act more decently and more organized, KCCA opted to act corporately, trading on the 'actions are from or in a way supported by the people above' rather than dealing with the root cause of the problem - change the system of management as a way of changing the face/image and disassociating itself from the failed KCC. This did not go down well with many of us especially given the fact that the KCCA is still largely entrenched with the corrupt and brutal character traits of KCC. In the recent road constructions and maintenance it was disappointing that KCCA that has got more financial support than KCC has still struggled to construct meaningful roads within the city. We still have a flooded smelly city, a congested town, long hours of traffic jam and the worst city public transport system in East Africa.

On the other hand, the demolition of markets together with the malicious evictions of market vendors has revealed to us the KCCA is also practicing modern brutality sugar coated with legitimacy in market developments. Most recently at Kisasi Market, the eviction of vendors from the road reserves turned out in to a grabbing session for the KCCA staff. The KCCA ED’s tough boys have often used such opportunities to not only brutalize and melee innocent poor vendors but also forcefully load off their merchandize as we have clearly witnessed on media. Both the Mayor and the KCCA ED must ensure that sanity returns to this city. These corrupt and ill-mannered fellows cannot create the new image that their bosses often speak of when such incidences are left unpunished.

The endless fights and court cases between the Mayor & the Ed, demonized by another less experienced and partisan Minister for Kampala Affairs has turned the only city in to a personal affair. It is disgusting for any tax payer to spend almost 3 hours covering a distance of 10Kms in jam, failing to get parking in town, opting to use a taxi but exorbitant fares are charged, having no public transport system to cater for the poor, failure to see cohesion amongst the persons in charge who are fully embattled in unless political fights and worse still seeing fellow Ugandans being roughed up by the corrupt KCCA yellow boys.

Without a meaningful plan and management of this city by the KCCA, the modernization of this city will never come to pass. KCCA must look beyond using Councilors to frustrate the Mayor but have a deliberate and concerted effort that will in totality tell us the different between the management style of the new KCCA and the old KCC that was poorly facilitated yet very corrupt.

For God & My Country.