KCCA ARRESTS- A POLITICAL FAR CRY

The Kiteezi tragedy will remain an eye sore in the diaries of the fired and jailed Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) former executives. Before it happened, the executives treated the landfill as a normal and routine budgetary line that had to be serviced regardless. That meant that the UGX 4Bn  bill had to be forked out religiously to the contracted management firm owned by a renowned city engineer. It was business as usual.

What never crossed their minds, is that the garbage heap was a death trap for weather-beaten folks, who eke a living around this harm’s way. It was a disaster waiting to happen, though the stewards were busy forking out billions while beckoning  on the angel of death to take its work seriously. Ultimately, the angel acted with devastating ferocity, sending more than twenty souls to meet their creator. It was sad, but it exhibited the highest form of nonchalant leadership.

Their arrest was not a shock to many, especially when the monthly maintenance cost was revealed to the public, against the efforts on ground. Actually, the management of the garbage site, depended on trash scavengers, who every day foraged through the rubbish, to find anything of any material value. They were willing “workers” of KCCA without pay.

When the disaster struck, the blame game started, however, a rolling stone gathers no moss. As longer as the accusations and counter accusations gained traction, none was far from culpability, the law had to take the inevitable course.

However, why are the failings of the KCCA former executives, a more political far cry than those of other ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), who have plundered public resources through outright theft, budgeted corruption, negligence and utter ineptness? The media has been awash with credible stories of inflated budgets of projects, poor service delivery and poor technical advice. What is soup for the goose is soup for the gander. What applies to one, should apply to all.

Questions are abound, what happened to the engineers that caused dam overflow at Isimba that caused billions in losses to both government and public? Who made that design that never anticipated a sudden surge in water levels? Which Engineer designed the Nakivubo channel that has turned into more of a death trap than a flood vent? Who at UNRA supervises road contractors who put a half inch layer of gravel against the quoted thickness, can someone be held to account for road carnage claiming hundreds of people’s lives? Which school management has been held responsible for the rampant fires that have erased down dormitories and student lives? These and many others reflect lack of consistence, to follow through the legal recourse. It is more disheartening, when at a later point in the legal process, when public emotions have receded, the government loses interest in the case and it collapses.

Apart from a handful, like John Muhanguzi Kashaka (the former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Local Government), most of the executives in these state authorities have walked away scot-free, either through poor government legal representation or the process grounding to halt due to loss of interest in the case. All this means pilferage of our meagre resources to crooks.

By the way, what happened to the Katosi road saga, the finance officials who connived with MPs to inflate budget figures? These omissions by government to have a broader perspective on how to fight graft and the incompetence exhibited, makes some kneejerk arrests look like comedy skits. At least, KCAA has a reason for their failure, weak as it is. The argument that Kiteezi  relocation was an unfunded priority for many budget cycles, could be plausible, but that only addresses the easy excuse, they do not point out the billions spent on managing the dumpsite.

It is common sense that the more it took to relocate Kiteezi, the long it remained a cash cow to the managers, they were not in a hurry to press for funding. Even now, it has emerged that the land where the relocation was meant to happen, the figure per acre had been inflated to sh250m. This has only come out after the sacking of the executives. The revision of the price to sh100m is a noble gesture, but not good enough, given the rural nature of the land being procured. Let us not make the turning of the legal wheels be impulsive; rather they should be deliberate and assertive.

Without sounding pessimistic, Kiteezi tragedy may not provide a prima facie case in court against the KCCA executives, if they can prove that they requested for funding from government which never came. It is a lame excuse, but which cannot be totally discounted. May be if funding had come earlier, the loss of lives would have been averted.

The intermittent city floods, render any excuse a nullity, the bad roads, potholes and poor lighting, pose equally the same tragedy like Kiteezi. The clarion call should be that the law has to be applied to all equally. The fight should not be selective; the legal path to prosecute the culprits must be littered with thorns, to make impropriety a risky business.

The KCCA management model is raising serious questions. Was the creation of the authority having two parallel power centers working for us? Is there need for review? Is the funding model appropriate? KCCA should not be treated as a political far cry, but a microcosm of what is pervading our Ministries, departments and agencies.