NEED FOR KCCA REFORM


There has been a lot of mixed feelings, emotions and opinions about work at KCCA basing on the two distinct offices, Lord Mayor and the ED. There has been pulling ropes between the ED ad the Lord Mayor of which some other people have categorized as the Fight, hate, enmity between the two officers.

Reference should be made to the KCCA Act establishing the Authority as to whether it envisaged such a situation to happen and as such provide preventive remedy. I have insisted that the problem at KCCA is unfortunately a creature of statute which needs reform. The reading of sections 9,10,11 of the KCCA Act create the office of the Lord Mayor. One of his function is to be a political head of the authority and that he is answerable to the Minister and the ED;11(2); How else would you want the Lord Mayor to exercise his political mandate apart from him going back to his electorates as a sign of accountability.? How can an elected Mayor be answerable to the minister yet he was elected by his constituents, he should be answerable to them and how else can he do this apart from using any available lawful means such as radios, rallies etc? In essence; The lord mayor is accused of doing what he is supposed to be doing. On the other part, sections 17 and 18 provide for the ED and her functions and in substance, apart from her being appointed by the President and overseeing the authority, there is little difference in their roles.

The problem therefore is not one of the 'person of the Lord Mayor nor the person of the Executive Director" but one of the Offices. How do you expect a technician and A mayor who is a ceremonious political head to work in harmony, the latter's interest and accountability is to the voters and the former to the Appointing Authority; the President and as such, as long as this stands, no matter who comes in as the Mayor, the cause will not be resolved but rather symptoms. I therefore propose the following. There should either be one Mayor or one ED to head KCCA. If it is the Mayor, he should be voted by masses and if it is the ED, any Ugandan with qualifications should apply to public service commission and be vetted other than an appointment from the President. That way, we may have sanity in the governance of Kampala.

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