By Susan Kushaba
Recently, primer minister Robinah Nabbanja shut up Kampala minister Hajjat Minsa Kabanda during a post-road works inspection tour meeting at the prime minister’s board room at the OPM. Having watched the UBC full video of that meeting, I can’t thank the PM enough.
First of all, it’s good to conduct government business transparently and in the open as the prime minister did that day. Public officials have always hidden behind closed door meetings to conduct the business of the people in total secrecy and concealment. That is how they end up lying to the president about public opinion and state of affairs in the city and country regarding service delivery.
Minsa Kabanda has been minister in charge of Kampala for almost 5 years and yet it had to take the prime minister Nabbanja to convene that meeting of all stakeholders including contractors, KCCA and works ministry officials in order to understand why roads construction projects in Kampala are moving at the snail’s pace yet the president and parliament have done their part of appropriating and making the money available.
It has always been my view that Kampala can work and that the president has done her part to provide the necessary financial requirements to deliver a better city except that our capital isn’t well led. It’s a city that hasn’t been properly governed. Yes, what has been provided may not be enough-it’s always work in progress even in the US, resources are never enough. My view has always been that we can do a lot more for the people of Kampala even with the little funding available.
This exactly is what prime minister Nabbanja demonstrated through her televised meeting at the OPM. Works minister Ecweru was there, the KCCA ED was there and Minsa Kabanda yet none of them had guts to say Kampala roads are in the bad state they are in because Museveni hasn’t provided money to do the job. That would have been a lie and I’m grateful none of them made such claim.
It was clear the money was provided and that blame lies somewhere else. Unscripted as always, Nabbanja asked all the relevant question that needed to be asked and in the end it was clear, blame lies somewhere but not the president or the finance ministry. The engineers from KCCA and Works were all there looking at each other in shame-with guilt written all over their faces as Nabbanja demanded for answers and asked all the tough questions. It was clear officials at KCCA and Kampala ministry have let down the people, not the president.
At the end of the day, it emerged that the buck stops with the leadership of Kampala both at city hall and at minister Kabanda’s place. First of all, the prime minister brought it out that some of the construction firms that were contracted simply lack the capacity to do the job.
One Chinese firm was established to have been awarded too much work load than it can manage to the extent it has no capacity and experience to handle. This was very clear and we all must thank our dear Nabbanja for laying that fact on table. She got the KCCA and Works engineers to admit and say this themselves. And that is what it is.
Nabbanja exhibited great interrogation skills and didn’t allow anyone to get away with it. She guided on things which the Kampala minister ought to have handled years ago if she was up to the task. For instance, Nabbanja rightly demanded to know whose permission Minsa Kabanda needed to intervene and require the Chinese contractors to work at night so that day time traffic isn’t disrupted as Ugandans move to and from work. This enables the road to be done and delivered on time without preventing the taxpayers from going about their work during the day.
Minsa Kabanda was unable to explain why she wasn’t convening such meetings like Nabbanja did that day to keep bringing stakeholders together to know who needs help and where. Nabbanja was shocked to realize there is a lot Minsa Kabanda, who grew up and has worked in Kampala’s Kisenyi her entire life, didn’t know about the state of roads in Kampala.
To her credit, Nabbanja knew even the smallest footpaths in the different divisions of Kampala especially Kawempe where she lives near Kavule. This exposed Minsa Kabanda’s ineptness and demonstrated the extent to which she isn’t on the ground enough in her own Kampala. What riled Nabbanja even more was to realize that the Kampala minister couldn’t answer nor guide even on very basic things about Kampala which primarily is her docket.
Minsa also tried to act tough by coming off hard on the KCCA leadership, the Works ministry engineers and some of the individual contractors, especially the representatives of one of the Chinese companies, prompting Nabbanja to rightly demand to know why she wasn’t convening such meetings to ask all those tough questions as opposed to waiting to seek to shine in the prime minister’s meeting.
After demonstrating to the audience via the UBC broadcast that the president had indeed done his part only to be let down by the political leadership in Kampala, Nabbanja demanded to know why Minsa Kabanda wasn’t using such meetings to obtain the latest and accurate information about why road projects aren’t being completed on time in Kampala.
Nabbanja guided that a smart minister for Kampala would be having weekly reports on the latest progress on all these road projects and sharing it with the president and the entire cabinet during the Monday cabinet sessions. She castigated Minsa Kabanda for sleeping on the job and not acting prudently on all this. Having watched proceedings at that meeting, I got to understand Rt. Hon Nabbanja better and I felt reason to like her more and it’s my prayer that such transparency and openness in the conduct of government business gets replicated by all government officials.
It’s the people’s business and it’s my proposal that let’s open it up to public scrutiny so that the people of Uganda get to know the extent to which the president has done his part and who exactly among those Minsa Kabanda-like floppy public officials is letting him down on what.
As a Uganda I liked Nabbanja’s approach not simply because I intend to stand for Kampala Central MP Seat on the NRM ticket, which I will be competing with Minsa Kabanda for, but largely because I’m convinced that the people of Uganda and taxpayers deserve much better than what our Kampala leaders are currently offering. I look forward to seeing the Rt. Hon prime minister deploying that same approach on all the other MDAs so that the floppy CEOs and leaders are forced to rise from their slumber.
The insensitivity of those grifters in our government is simply too much and Ugandans, having been patient for all this long, want to see you Rt. Hon Nabbanja crackung the whip even more and in broad day light. Please our dear prime minister, do not accept intimidation from any mafia groups and back off your leadership style of opening up government processes.
No one can afford getting away with ineptness while hiding under the need for secrecy anymore; the people have to see what is being done in their name and in any case it’s their business, and not that of minister like Minsa Kabanda, that is being transacted. I remain proud NRM cadre Susan Kushaba, an aspiring MP Kampala Central division come 2026. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
