KAMPALA, UGANDA: As Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) prepares for life after under fire Executive Director (ED) Dorothy Kisaka beginning next week, fresh details have emerged on what exactly rubbed the city mafia the wrong way.
Kisaka was named to the KCCA hot seat by President in a surprise announcement in June 2020 and her tenure of three years is, however, set to run out on 23, July, which is just a matter of days.
Inside sources at City Hall have revealed to this publication that whereas Deputy Executive Director, David Luyimbaazi Ssali and Grace Akullo, the Director of Human Resource and Management, the other two whose appointments came at the same time as Kisaka’s have had their contract renewals cleared, the ED remains in the dark.
There have been widely circulated reports of a well-orchestrated foul play which has involved negative media smear campaigns to discredit the former Presidential Advisor.
A very sinister plot has been going on in the media highlighting the weak points of the Kisaka KCCA tenure in the last couple of weeks, with some going overboard to attack the ED as a person.
It has since emerged that two key interventions in her bid to improvise for funds amid COVID-19-induced budget cuts landed her in trouble with some dark forces at the authority.
The formation of the Seven Hills group where Kisaka sought to get the troublesome street-connected youths involved in the running of the city stepped on the toes of many unconsciously.
Concerned about the high crime rate that exposed citizens to endless danger, the ED sought out ways of providing a safe avenue for the group without using force which had not worked prior. As such, an outreach campaign was coined to prepare former petty criminals and drug-infested communities who were later offered jobs in the cleaning of the City and to beef up the enforcement teams. Others were deployed in the Rapid Response Unit of the Authority.
Whereas the above intervention can proudly account for the relative peace witnessed in the city since 2021, dark forces that had sipped dividends out of the confusion seem not to be prepared to wallow in defeat forever.
The group was not only used by some unscrupulous but well-placed people around KCCA to rob travellers while paying royalties in exchange for underhand protection but also hired out to cause havoc and claim huge budgets to calm the situation which would routinely swell their purses.
As those hitherto jobless people started feeling a special connection to the city, it became hard for them to be mobilised into criminal activities which cost some people a livelihood.
Artificial friction was masterminded from within between the new group of workers and those who had been there prior. Demonstrations were organised with reports of non-payment advanced against the authority.
President Museveni was, however, impressed by the new intervention and ultimately gave written approval for Kisaka’s efforts, much to the disappointment of the aggressors.
Indeed, while addressing LC Chairpersons from Kampala at Kololo Independence Grounds early this year, Museveni waxed lyrical about Kisaka’s Seven Hill program which he applauded for “turning the Sauls into Pauls” and told off those that were masterminding aggression towards the move.
As a result, as many as 7000 people in this category have been settled into constructive service to the Capital, much to the chagrin of the mafia group.
The introduction of the fully automated city revenue administration and collection system- Use of online services called e-cities) landed the ED in hot soup. Even though the new approach improved revenue administration in terms of reduced turnaround time resulting in a drastic increase in tax revenue, it had dug a deep hole in the pockets of the bad guys who had for long profited from their unfair direct interface with taxable citizens from whom they solicited fortunes in bribes.
As a result, the innovation saved KCCA and the Government 70 % of the resources that would otherwise have been used in the property evaluation process.
With the tunnel now closed completely, Kisaka has found herself in a complex situation amid accusations of not wanting to allow her mates to enjoy their loot in peace.
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