HERE’S HOW DOROTHY KISAKA WILL BE REMEMBERED AS AN ADMINISTRATOR WHO TRIED HER BEST TO IMPACT K’LA

By Mulengera Reporters

Dorothy Kisaka’s administration at Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has been dogged by adversity notably the Covid-19 and its economic impact on the nation, the Ebola outbreak, and now more recently the garbage slide. However, there are impressive milestones since she took office in 2020 in the Covid-stricken Kampala.

Kisaka has consistently championed a vision for a “SMART CITY” focusing on three pillars namely technology advancement, infrastructure development and people’s wellbeing-using the acronym TIP. We highlight here eight key areas of achievement beyond the normal internal enhancement of systems to drive the institution. These briefly are clustered into the following;

1. Traffic decongestion plan,
2. Roads and drainages,
3. Revenue collection increase,
4. Kampala City Awards,
5. Smart City Ambassadors,
6. Parish Development Model,
7. Enhanced City image,
8. social inclusiveness.

TRAFFIC DECONGESTION PLAN: A key achievement of Kisaka’s administration is the completion of the state-of-the-art Kampala Traffic Control Centre at City Hall. This impressive five-storied building serves as the command centre for managing city traffic in real-time, which is a game-changer for congestion reduction and road safety improvements.

The Kampala Traffic Control Centre is set to signalize 27 major junctions across the city, ensuring a smoother flow of traffic and reducing congestion. This significant milestone is consistent with Kisaka’s vision for a smart city. It will be interesting to see how this initiative will impact the daily lives of Kampala’s residents and commuters when it is finally completed in April 2025.

This Kampala Traffic Control Centre is beneficial to Kampala travellers in a multiplicity of ways as illustrated hereunder:

1. Real-time Traffic Management where the centre will monitor and manage traffic in real-time, reducing congestion and travel times.
2. Improved Road Safety whereby through the signalizing of major junctions, the centre will contribute to improved road safety and reduced accidents.
3. Enhanced Commuter Experience whereby reduced congestion and improved traffic flow will enable commuters to enjoy a more pleasant travel experience. The Kisaka era KCCA has been instrumental in driving this project forward and its completion and delivery will forever testify to her commitment to creating a vibrant, attractive and sustainable city.

ROADS AND DRAINAGES: Kisaka’s administration has been instrumental in transforming Kampala’s infrastructure and the Kampala City Roads Rehabilitation Project (KCRRP) is an irrefutable example of this. The project is refurbishing 41 roads across the city including notorious bottlenecks visible on Salama Road and Sir Apollo Kaggwa Road as well as several Industrial Area Roads. This intervention, though wasn’t promptly delivered as would have been ideal, is expected to greatly improve traffic flow while reducing congestion. The African Development Bank committed $288m to fund the KCRRP which demonstrates the project’s importance and potential impact.

Key Project Components include targeting major connectors and industrial area roads, 22 Traffic Junctions, upgrades to enhance traffic management and safety 123km of Non-Motorized Transport Facilities, Walkways and bicycle lanes to promote sustainable transportation.

The project is currently underway in five lots in the five divisions of the city with significant progress made with the completion of several roads in Makindye Division. The other Kisaka era signature project is the GKMA project which was launched by H. E the President in September 2024 and 81Kms of Kampala roads will be refurbished under this GKMA intervention.

REVENUE COLLECTION INCREASE: Under Kisaka’s leadership, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) also achieved remarkable financial success as was evidenced by record-breaking revenue collection. The Kisaka-era KCCA collected Shs114.3bn during the FY2023/24 and thereby exceeding the set target with a 11.4% rise.

There has been a double-digit percentage growth in revenue collection throughout Kisaka’s four-year tenure and the key factors contributing to this success included;

• Automation of revenue collection systems, enhancing efficiency and

reducing leakage.

• Improved tax compliance and enforcement.
• Enhanced transparency and accountability.

Kisaka’s strategic leadership and commitment to reforming revenue collection systems yielded impressive results and thereby positioning KCCA for continued growth and development. Some potential next steps to sustain this momentum could include:

expanding automation to other revenue streams, enhancing public-private partnerships to boost revenue and continuing to improve tax compliance and enforcement. The improved revenue collection performance illustrates Kisaka-era KCCA’s effective governance and innovative solutions which enabled Kampala serve as a model for other urban authorities in the country and beyond.

GLOBAL RECOGNITION: Kampala City has been making waves under Kisaka’s administration and some of the reputable recognition that came KCCA’s way include the following:

• The City won the prestigious Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation in China, recognizing its innovative use of simple technology to address sanitation issues in local communities. Kampala’s sanitation improvement efforts have been impressive, with initiatives like the Weyonje mobile application and a GIS-enabled innovation (that has transformed sanitation services) taking centre stage.
• Kampala won the 2024 Infrastructure Transparency Index (ITI) award in transparency within Uganda’s public infrastructure.
• Kampala City won the Best Tourism Award in 2024, solidifying its position as a tourism top destination.
• KCCA health facilities were consistently recognized for their exceptional quality care, winning top national awards for three consecutive years since 2020.
• KCCA schools have excelled too; emerging as the best performers in national music, dance and drama competitions for two years running since post Covid.
• The City also hosted popular events like the Kampala Car free Day, Kampala City Marathon and the Kampala Food event to enhance tourism besides promoting a healthier population. All these undeniable accomplishments speak to Kisaka’s commitment to creating a vibrant, attractive and sustainable City.

THE SMART CITY AMBASSADORS’ MOV’T: This is a ground-breaking initiative that started during Kisaka’s administration in June 2024. And it demonstrated her commitment to inclusive and participatory governance of the City. Four village representatives were identified to represent each of Kampala’s 857 villages. The ambassadors have been coming together in quarterly meetings to discuss city development, challenges and solutions while learning from each other. These city ambassadors have been serving as liaisons between KCCA and the public; ensuring feedback and concerns are addressed.

This innovative program had the following objectives: bridging the gap between KCCA and residents; fostering active citizen participation in Kampala’s Smart City transition and

raising awareness on City development programs. The Smart City Ambassadors Movement demonstrated Kisaka’s leadership and commitment to deliberate work towards creating a vibrant, attractive and sustainable City. By leveraging citizen participation Kampala (under Kisaka and should continue to) poised to become a model for African Cities.

THE PARISH DEVELOPMENT MODEL: This project was launched in February 2022 by President Yoweri Museveni to transform subsistence households into the money economy and lift 17.5m Ugandans out of poverty.

In Kampala’s case, this national project aims to support small enterprise development in the city’s parishes, promoting economic growth and improving livelihoods. By empowering communities to take charge of their development, the PDM initiative has potential to make a lasting impact on poverty reduction in Kampala. Under Kisaka’s leadership, Kampala City has made significant strides with the PDM initiative with Shs9.677bn being disbursed; representing 99.8% performance. This impressive performance relating to PDM could only happen because of effective leadership and not mere luck.

Things may have gone wrong here and there (including slow-paced infrastructure revamp projects due to funding constraints) but there are plenty of great things for which the Dorothy Kisaka administration at KCCA will remembered including decency, willingness to engage with all stakeholders, making City Hall less belligerent and more accessible to the public than had been the case under her predecessors whose reign was even more funded than hers.

Besides being deliberate about keeping a clean record regarding corruption deals and misappropriation of public funds in Kampala, Kisaka was well-intentioned, believed in delegating work and demonstrably understood what was at stake and had good plans except that her performance was constrained and diminished by inadequate funding, a less supportive national treasury and constraints that came with the prolonged lockdown the City was under as a result of the COVID19 restrictions which the government imposed all over the country for almost 2 years.

KAMPALA’S TOURISM: Under her tenure, Kampala launched the Tourist Information Centre (at Sheraton Hotel), which is jointly promoted by Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and KCCA. This is a walk-in information centre where tourists can learn all there is about the City.

It was under the Kisaka era that Kampala successfully hosted the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and G77+China summits in January 2024. This was a significant achievement and earning the City plenty of positive visibility and international acclaim. The events brought together representatives from 120 member countries; providing a unique opportunity for Uganda to demonstrate its capabilities and hospitality. To prepare for these events, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) undertook substantial infrastructure improvements impacting major roads that got refurbished besides drainage systems.

KCCA upgraded over 35kms of roads leading to Speke Resort Munyonyo, where the Summits took place and these include Gaba Road, Cape Road and Salama Road. The Authority also addressed major flooding hotspots such as Bunga-Soya and Auto Spa along the Gaba road. Additional road improvements included Mukwano Road, Press House Road and Mobutu Road; these were also renovated to ensure smooth transportation.

SOCIAL INCLUSIVENESS: Perhaps Kisaka’s greatest score, which will have lasting impact and legacy, relates to how her leadership demonstrated strong commitment to social inclusivity, particularly for vulnerable groups in the City. The innovative scheme, Seven Hills Saccos, has transformed the lives of over two thousands of ghetto youth in Kampala. They have received employment opportunities, as city cleaners, transitioning from informal to formal economy. Their inclusion into the smart city agenda through landing cleaning jobs had the effect of reducing crime by engaging youth in productive work. The same intervention has mainly impacted hitherto unemployable youths living in Kampala’s informal settlements. The initiative will continue to promote social cohesion and community pride. Youths have been enabled to earn a steady income and thereby improving their economic stability.

This innovative approach aimed at addressing the root causes of social issues and promoting sustainable change. Seven Hills-Saccos approach (which the KCCA CEC has recently ratified) serves as a replicable model for other cities, demonstrating the power of inclusive governance. Still on the vulnerable, KCCA has been able to rescue and rehabilitate over 1,200 vulnerable children picked up through street rescue, rehabilitation and settlement program in collaborations with organizations like Uganda Women’s Efforts to Save Orphans (UWESO) which will continue to partner with the City Authority to facilitate reintegration of such children into education and society.

Under Kisaka’s reign, the City’s 15 markets have been brought under KCCA’s full administration for the first time ever. This move has improved market management, enhanced revenue collection and created jobs for women in markets. The markets infrastructure has been enhanced with lighting and paving of roads as well as refurbishment of toilets.

Another notable accomplishment is the resolution of conflicts among transport groups. Hitherto very antagonistic, these groups have made peace and reorganized their industry under KCCA’s supervision and thereby ensuring smooth operations transportation and diminishing on the chaotic scenes it used to be. Kisaka’s leadership also facilitated the first Land Management Forum which brought together Kampala landowners and developers to discuss pressing land management challenges.

This forum led to the establishment of a dedicated Land Management Think Tank for Kampala which remains a crucial step towards addressing the city’s land administration issues. There are also key initiatives that had been started upon but not yet completed including the conversion of waste into energy initiative. Kisaka has been intentional in building strategic relationships for the City and enhancing internal systems to ensure efficient service delivery. There is a lot the new could learn from her tenure of four years which was cut short by the President’s action that was largely triggered by Uganda’s collective failure to avert the Saturday 10^th September Kiteezi disaster. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at [email protected]).