By John V Sserwaniko
At his Tuesday news conference, Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago’s opening statement was a reference to Holy Scriptures. “God is good all the time. And all the time God is good. And that is his nature,” said Lukwago who was to subsequently quote many more scriptures from both the Bible and Koran. He claimed KCCA ED Jennifer Musisi, whose resignation he was here to thank God for, had tried many times to politically deflate him “but I’m still here going strong because I have been surviving by the grace of God and not because I’m personally very powerful in anyway.” He said since becoming Lord Mayor seven years ago, this was the first time he was beginning feel fully in office that was given to him by the voters. “I’m very excited I even failed to sleep last night notwithstanding the fact that it’s not yet Uhuru.” Saying his God is always there to fight his wars, Lukwago said he now qualifies to be a good political prophet because many of the things he prophesied about the Musisi-era City Hall have come to pass. “In my language they say that ssegulira emmandwa etule nga byeyakulagula byatukirira,” Lukwago said in reference to his growing prophetic credentials. He insisted that the circumstances of Musisi’s voluntary exit had proved that the happiness of the righteous man can never be deprived forever. In reference to Kampala Minister Beti Kamya, whose similar fall he said was imminent, Lukwago said: “doing evil is exciting and a very addictive way to live but the evil doers will always end in failure and destruction.” Flanked by Wakiso LC5 Chairman Matia Lwanga Bwanika, whom he would later escort to CIID, Lukwago said he prophesied existence of deeply seated political problems at City Hall (called it multiple organ failure) which must be resolved or else nobody will excel however good they are. “I have always said Jennifer Musisi wasn’t a good manager and today you have all seen how she has ended with her impunity. In her voluminous letter she refers to political expedience problems that remain unresolved and talks about politics interfering to frustrate the performance of KCCA duties. Incidentally this is similar to what her former deputy Dr. Judith Tukahirwa noted in her resignation letter and by the way it was October 2016.” Lukwago insisted as long as the political governance questions aren’t adequately addressed to get all stakeholders along, performance of duties at KCCA will remain complex. Lukwago, who had no kind words for the lady from Kitezi, accused the ED of having “this exaggerated sense of self-importance which has seen her respect nobody apart from Mr. Museveni.” He said Musisi is very contemptuous of all other leaders including MPs and RCCs. He said Musisi started growing wings when Museveni publicly praised her “thinking she was also the President in KCCA.” He also criticized for contradicting himself when he said recently that voters had kept him away from Kampala affairs yet he always bragged of using Musisi to neutralize elected leaders simply because they aren’t NRM.
MANY HAVE FALLEN;
Saying his God was mightier than any other, Lukwago reflected on foes who tried to frustrate his tenure at KCCA only for them to fall with a very bad ending. He gave the example of RCC Mpimbaza Hashaka, Presidency Minister Frank Tumwebaze and Kabakumba Matsiko before him. “There is now Beti Kamya who I’m very sure will fall very soon and that one I’m not worried. Even at the risk of seeming discourteous, forgive me. I have reason to celebrate today as one of the best days in my life. Life has extremely been hard for the last 7 years here because of Musisi’ impunity. Power had clearly gone into her head and she demanded fear as opposed to being respected. She was a tyrant just like Napoleon Bonaparte. She was never courteous and doesn’t deserve any modesty,” said Lukwago. He also quarreled about Musisi discourteously not copying her resignation letter to him yet he is the KCCA overall head. “This is a statutory institution where certain things have to be done whether we like it or not because it’s not Madam Jennifer Musisi’s personal property. But God is good in all this. I have lived to see the end of Kabakumba, Frank Tumwebaze, Mpimbaza Hashaka at KCCA and now Madam Jennifer Musisi.” Lukwago said Musisi, like those before her, is finally out of the way “not because I’m personally very powerful but by God’s grace and because of the might of people power.” While struggling to hold back tears of a painful past, Lukwago reflected on the economic misery he endured for the three years he was out of office after being ousted. “The Jennifer Musisi Empire has crumbled largely because she failed to understand and respect the power of the people who have kept me in this office to the extent that all the other hostile leaders found and left me there.” He added “its good riddance and I won’t miss her.” He repeatedly said “I’m glad the supremacy of People Power has brought her down.” He said there is no other way to explain Musisi’s exit but the might of God. “She had turned this place into a garrison in order to enforce my eviction from my office and those three years were painful in ways I don’t even want to narrate to you but just know it was a very painful period.” He said “those remaining like Beti Kamya should realize that evil is fun but its wages are destruction and nothing ever lasts forever.” Lukwago added that though he isn’t under any illusion that it’s going to easy “I’m now becoming more certain that I will be here to see the departure of Mr. Museveni from power for our country to have a new start.” He showed his joy by rehearsing the old Kyankwanzi songs which he learnt during his pre-University military training there. Saying Musisi was a heartless lady, Lukwago nearly shed tears when he narrated the last Thursday incident regarding his salary. “There was one of the Kavuma era applications which she won and she clandestinely went to court to garnish my salary. She targeted my account in Tropical bank saying she must recover Shs47m. I was saved by good Samaritans who alerted me but her plan was to ensure I lose salary for five months because my net is Shs10m per month. She doesn’t have any courtesy and wanted to keep earning from the KCCA coffers even after ceasing to be ED through accessing my monthly salary but we fought that off.”
ED PERFORMANCE;
Lukwago also disputed the successes Musisi disclosed in her resignation letter to be her personal accomplishments. “She has always been absent from office and it’s the Deputy ED who has been running this place,” Lukwago said as he showed scribes memos the ED wrote to her indicating prolonged absence from office. He said Musisi should be judged basing on the 2014-2019 KCCA Strategic Plan which she authored herself to his total exclusion. “She promised to have upgraded 80% of the roads to bitumen and introduction of cable cars and parking towers was to be her flagship project. It was called the Kampala Smart City project which flopped. She must answer how far she has gone achieving that Strategic Plan before running away with too much failure,” he sarcastically said. He added Musisi’s modest accomplishments should be understood against the fact that she had over Shs700bn at her disposal as a CEO who never accounted to anyone. In comparison, her predecessors had peanuts. As a way forward, Lukwago said “we are going to rebrand KCCA and even change the logo back to the original one as part of the cleansing to overcome the Jeniffer Musisi’s impunity and brutality.” He is convening urgent Authority meeting on Thursday to agree on the action plan to be followed to pacify City Hall. He announced a comprehensive audit of all transactions Musisi signed off in the last 7 years including the multi-billion road works. “She was the Alpha and Omega and operated without a contracts committee forgetting we can still go after her even after leaving office. She became hostile and stopped attending Authority meetings because we raised these pertinent questions under Section 76 of the KCCA Act. There is no single contracts committee report for 7 years. Where does this happen in a statutory institution?” Lukwago fumed. He said staff recruitment will be scrutinized to enforce accountability against over 700 employees Musisi arbitrarily recruited without going through Public Service Commission procedures. Many of these first came as consultants whose tenure Musisi kept renewing every four months and they have improperly been generously remunerated. “Just keep your ear to the ground. We are going to bring that technical wing under the authority and control of the political leadership of this Authority. These are going to be very busy weeks,” said Lukwago urging Parliament to expedite changes in KCCA Act and diminish the President’s powers in appointing officials of the technical wing. He says other stakeholders should have a say in who becomes ED as opposed to the President’s word being final. He said benchmarking should be done on Kenya where appointment to public office is increasingly becoming transparent to ensure increased public involvement.
