Members of Parliament on the Committee on Commissions Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) grilled the Executive Director of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), Ms. Dorothy Kisaka, and the authority’s director in charge of public health, Dr. Dan Okello on Thursday over allegations of sidelining the Lord Mayor, Mr. Erias Lukwago, in decision-making regarding the Kiteezi landfill.
Appearing before the committee chaired by Busiro East MP, Medard Lubega Ssegona, the MPs discovered that numerous letters were written by the Executive Director and the director of public health concerning the next steps after the collapse of the Kiteezi landfill, but the Lord Mayor and his team were not copied in.
Ssegona observed that the poor coordination between the political leadership of Kampala City Hall and the technical wing explains KCCA’s failure to perform effectively.
The Deputy Lord Mayor, Ms. Doreen Nyanjura, informed the committee that this was not an isolated incident, as the Lord Mayor and his team had been consistently sidelined on major issues, often only becoming aware of decisions after they had been made.
“This is a very unfortunate practice that we have always complained about. The city has a leader who is the Lord Mayor, unfortunately, most of the time, we are left behind,” she said.
In response, Kisaka told the committee that this was the practice she had found in the Authority, emphasizing that there were no ill intentions and promising that such occurrences would not happen again.
“The practice has been that technical letters are not copied to the city executive but when we meet the city executive committee, we brief the Lord Mayor,” Kisaka told MPs on Thursday.
