Video: MoH MESSAGE ON CHILDREN & MATERNAL HEALTH
By Mulengera Reporters
Leveraging on funding from World Bank and other partners, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) today Wednesday unveiled a range of IT-enabled interventions aimed at making life better for all city residents. The two innovations, aimed at amplifying Kampala’s credentials as a “smart city,” are codenamed “City Address Model [CAM]” and “Computer Aided Mass Valuation [CAMV).”
Read together, the two interventions are abbreviated as “CAM-CAMV.” The #KlaKonect innovation was equally unveiled at the same glamorous event that was held at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala. “All these projects we have launched on this very memorable day will ease service delivery such as [building] plans approval, waste collection and revenue administration,” said Revenue Collection Director Samuel Serunkuma who oversaw the teams that worked for years to design and come up with these interventions. The service delivery-enhancing IT system was built or developed by Technology Associates Ltd closely working with other innovators behind the #KlaKonect initiative.
In a brief speech at the launch, Serunkuma, a long serving Director at KCCA, revealed that when WB generously funded the construction of new roads and drainage channels infrastructure, there were concerns about how a cash-strapped KCCA would go about the maintenance of the same. “There was this realization that KCCA will require steady flow of income to do maintenance works. That is how it was realized that all the properties, from which KCCA derives revenue, had to be valued for appropriate taxation.”
Serunkuma says that to realize the appropriate tax revenue, all the properties from which revenue must come had to be revalued and profiled to enable the Authority know what they each are supposed to pay in taxes. That is how the idea of CAM was conceived to enable KCCA uniquely identify all the residential and commercial houses in Kampala (as to their location) using real numbers as opposed to merely relying on Google maps.
Each property will now have a unique identifier which is computerized; implying that the authorities at KCCA will now be able to know which property is located in which location and the respective plot or property number from within the comfort of their offices. Whereas CAM will enable ascertainment of the physical location of the premises, to which the resultant property rates apply, CAMV will facilitate and enable mass valuation of all the properties falling within the geographical jurisdiction of KCCA. Property owners, seeking to have their resultant tax obligations assessed or ascertained, will be able lodge their applications electronically without having to physically visit any of KCCA offices.
With the CAM-CAMV innovation getting operationalized, every property in Kampala will have a house plate number pasted on them with road signs everywhere disclosing names of each and every Road or Close in the city-leading to each of these properties. On each house plate, a number will be written following the sequencing that is applicable to that Street/Road or Close. Speaking at the same function, an overjoyed KCCA ED Dorothy Kisaka commended Kampala residents and property owners for the enthusiasm they have so far exhibited towards this CAM exercise. That many of them have already applied for or taken out their house number plates that will ease location and identification of their respective properties for taxation, emergency rescue and security purposes.
The resultant convenience must benefit everyone (KCCA on one hand and city residents/property owners on the other) because there will now be improved/simplified postal delivery, logistics and tourism services in Kampala. The delivery of critical/emergency services (such as fire rescue and ambulance/health responses) will be greatly simplified.
Yet that isn’t all. The same CAM-CAMV initiative will accelerate the streamlining & harmonization of information relating to the location of properties for purposes of licensing and other regulatory requirements. A beaming Kisaka, who hours earlier had majestically hosted Kabaka’s brother Prince David Wasajja, said that the rolling out of the three projects (#KlaKonect, CAM & CAMV) made this Wednesday such an important day not only for KCCA but the entire Kampala populace. She observed the new innovations would create productive linkages between property and revenue management for the benefit of both the Authority and property owners in Kampala.
Leveraging on consultants from South Africa, who Serunkuma says have been here for some good time, KCCA has now mapped and attached coordinates to the entire geographical space covering Kampala, a thing that will greatly ease identification and location of every property electronically using electronic means. Inside the CAM-CAMV system is an inbuilt SMS platform eliminating the need for clients to physically having to visit any KCCA offices. KCCA publicist Daniel Nuwabine, who was the day’s MC, jokingly said this would greatly diminish bribe-solicitation from those seeking service from KCCA. This electronic platform is already enabling KCCA to send out demand notices to clients with pending tax obligations or even acknowledgement receipts ascertaining that a client’s payment has duly been received.
Serunkuma said updated information relating to valuation of property and the resultant property rates annually payable by property owners has been compiled into a data base and electronically stored for use by KCCA officers. The lists cover all the five City Divisions including Kawempe whose valuation exercise had to be redone afresh after the area Mayor Emmanuel Serunjogi led his residents to protest past valuations which they termed inflated, exploitative and unfair. Even in places were new properties had been erected since the last mass valuation exercise (of 2005/6), supplementary valuation has been done to ensure KCCA electronically has up to date information relating to properties in all its 5 City Divisions.
KCCA officials used the Imperial Royale event to celebrate the fact that, because of the updated property data base, the potentially collectable property tax had now risen from the mere Shs17bn to over Shs80bn which is currently being projected. Serunkuma said even when they know the complexities involved in ensuring the entire projected Shs80bn is collected, they consider the jump from mere Shs17bn to now Shs80bn to be such great progress.
DEFAULTING MDAs:
Specifically addressing himself to the Kampala Minister Minsa Kabanda, the main guest who also launched the projects, Serunkuma complained about the central government MDAs which are the major defaulters of property rates. That many of them are in default for years and once they pay up all the pending arrears, KCCA will be able to operate more efficiently while improving service delivery for city residents and dwellers. “We are grateful, Parliament recently complied and they paid up all the arrears. We beg you as our line Minister to take this matter to Cabinet and find a way of cajoling the respective PSs and Ministers concerned with these defaulting MDAs to pay up,” Serunkuma said as Minsa Kabanda nodded in approval.
Just like his boss Dorothy Kisaka, Serunkuma welcomed the criticisms their political head Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago keeps making against the technical wing. The duo admitted such criticisms is the only way they can improve. “The Lord Mayor can be very critical of us but the truth is he has been very supportive and we have been to his office for consultation and to seek guidance countless times as we made preparations for this day. We really would like to thank him and the Lord Councilors plus the Division Mayors and their respective delegations,” Serunkuma submitted while calling on leaders of informal sector groups like Taxi drivers’ Mustafa Mayambala to enthusiastically embrace all these reforms and changed approach to service delivery by KCCA. Mayambala was one of the many key stakeholders who attended the event that was also streamed live by NBS.
Kisaka thanked the President for his invaluable support and the facilitating role he continues to play to ensure the funding partnerships between KCCA and WB continue. Besides the Buganda Kingdom, whose Prince Wasajja she met before coming to Royale, Kisaka commended Minsa Kabanda for her political leadership, support and guidance.
The ED emphasized what Minsa Kabanda had said earlier by calling upon all stakeholders to have mindset change and have a positive attitude towards all KCCA efforts aimed at running Kampala as “a smart city.” She asserted all the infrastructure (physical and electronic) that is being put in place won’t amount to much unless city residents and dwellers unanimously by in and rally behind their political and technical leaders at City Hall.
She explained that when they talk of Kampala becoming a smart city, they are making reference to and envisaging “smart people [leveraging on] smart technology, smart permits, smart infrastructure and smart everything” to lead better lives while operating and living within the geographical boundaries of Kampala city. It’s for the same reason that no resident or city dweller should be expected or tolerated to obstruct or vandalize any of the road signs or house number plates that will be delivered and put in place in all the five City Divisions as part of the CAM-CAMV project implementation or roll out. KCCA officials, under the smart city approach, envisage city residents and dwellers who will be proudly protective of infrastructure relating to things like lighting systems, street lighting or even traffic lights installed at city junctions etc.
“This entire Smart City initiative can only be sustainable if the people of Kampala buy in,” Kisaka said agreeing with Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago that many of these things are long overdue and should have happened to Kampala City many years ago. Kisaka said the whole thing of Kampalans buying in rotates around “TWAT” which she explained as Kampala residents being “smart in the way they Think, Work, Act and Talk.” That “TWAT” would make it unacceptable and morally abominable for any resident to tolerate those vandalizing sign posts or covering them up with say campaign posters.
The same should see city residents unanimously demanding to have CAM quickly made applicable to their respective communities by insisting on having Streets, Roads or Closes leading to their respective residences or work place clearly named/identified or marked out with signposts being erected. In the same spirit, every Kampala resident will be expected to demand to have a house plate number pasted on their respective premises because the resultant benefits are for the good of both of KCCA and the citizens themselves in case of an emergency which could be security, health or even arson/fire-related. Kisaka says during the lockdown, many residents suffered having to give obscure directions to Boda riders and other carriers making delivery to their residences. She asserted that with City Address Model (CAM), such inconvenience should become thing of the past.
She explained there isn’t anything that the city leaders can’t accomplish for ordinary Kampalans once the harmonious relationship currently existing between the technical and political leadership is maintained. Kisaka also revealed that the resultant online infrastructure being delivered through the CAM-CAMV innovation must expedite and simplify the implementation and rolling out of the Parish Model for the case of Kampala which comprises of 99 Parishes. That all the relevant service delivery, relating to the Parish Model, will be easier to amplify because of the convenience and benefits coming under the CAM-CAMV project.
The City CEO used the same event to reveal that they will soon be commencing processes to recruit the 99 Parish Chiefs and members of the Parish Development Committees for the entire Kampala. Kisaka also disclosed that the Kampala-wide information that has been collected through the CAM-CAMV project will greatly help smoothen processes relating to distinguishing interventions to be designed for high tax-paying neighborhoods as compared to populations living in low income communities. (For comments on this story, call, text or whatsapp us on 0705579994, 0779411734, 0200900416 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).