The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Why the arrest and detention of the leaders of our city is a cynical political gimmick
THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | The arrest and detention of the top executives of KCCA for the disaster that happened at Kitezi landfill is sad. I know for a fact that President Yoweri Museveni did not order this arrest. However, I am conscious of the fact that for political reasons, government needed to appease public anger by punishing someone for the tragedy. Therefore, this is not an act of police activism gone too far. Rather, it is a strategic move by police to please the boss by imagining his political needs and second guessing his desires.
But I find it unfair for the three officials to be used as scapegoats in a disaster that was allowed to happen by the top leadership of our country particularly the president, parliament, the minister of finance and the secretary to the treasury. I say this despite my knowledge of the fact that this tragedy was long in the making and except for Museveni, all the other players had little or no difference to make. KCCA has spent nine years trying to secure money to decommission Kitezi. Every year since 2015, city authorities have presented a budget to do this and every year it has been returned as an “unfunded priority.” What then should KCCA officials have done?
During my discussions with the police bosses, I was told that at least KCCA, having failed to secure the money to decommission the landfill, should have warned the citizens to leave the Kitezi. On July 2nd, the Director of Public Health and Environment, Daniel Okello, wrote to the Executive Director, Dorothy Kisaka: “Kiteezi landfill us currently facing severe operational challenges due to continued use beyond capacity, which has led to the formation of waste cliffs and unstable slopes. This poses risks to both the waste management efficiency and community safety.”
The letter says there were cracks and waste slides, blocked drainage leading to flooding in the neighborhood, etc. He warned that if the waste collapses it will lead to loss of lives, property, litigation, halted waste dumping operations, and concludes saying that urgent attention is needed to mobilize resources for intervention. On August 10th, the disaster that had been predicted happened. There were some delays in response to this letter. It is easy [in retrospect] to condemn Kisaka for some of these delays. But her delay to act quickly and decisively in July pale to insignificance when compared with the delays the top leadership of government made over nine years.
Kiteezi was a tragedy that could easily have been avoid. Everyone who lives in Kampala knows the political neglect of the city. Government failed to avail KCCA money to buy a new piece of land to build a new landfill for nine years. The city kept piling garbage on garbage creating a mini-mountain 30 meters high. Note: a land fill should not exceed the ground level of where it is built. Given that 85% of Kampala’s garbage is organic, as it decomposes and socks in water, it moves/slides creating the very risk of collapse and the disaster that happened. Everyone in government with power to do something about it, most especially the president, knew that Kitezi was an accident waiting to happen and they did – nothing!
In my discussions with police, they said KCCA should then have made public announcements asking people to leave the area. And KCCA did this. On July 8th, KCCA wrote to the Kiteezi Landfill Salvagers Community Based Organization (KLSCBO) and copied this letter to two local police stations. This organization comprised people who use the landfill to recover usable materials like jerricans, bottles etc. KCCA had held meetings held with the organization on May 20th and July 2nd, warning members and residents of the dangers. I have videos of these meetings which I passed on to police bosses. Indeed, out of 35 people who died only three were from KLSCBO. What more did police want? The director of public health at KCCA who made all these warnings is also in jail.
The tragedy at Kiteezi happened on August 10th. Today is November 1st and government has not yet provided KCCA money for alternative landfill. The reader should note that Kiteezi is not used by KCCA alone. Wakiso, Nansana, Kiira, Makindye Sebagobo, Entebbe and Mukono use it too. Interestingly none of the leaders of these towns has been held to account. The failure of government to provide urgent funds for alternative land to build a landfill mean that now people are using swamps and Lake Victoria to dump waste. The consequences of this may not be realized quicky but in the long term they will lead to flooding and disease.
Kiteezi is only the top of a huge iceberg in administrative dysfunction in Uganda. As I write this article, an “investor” is massively backfilling (dumping hundreds of lorries of murram into) the swamp behind Bugolobi. Everyone who lives in Kampala knows that whenever it rains, the city floods. It is becoming increasingly impossible to drive even around Jinja Road round-about, industrial area, etc. whenever it rains because they flood. Everyone knows this is because of building in swamps.
Early last year, friends in Bugolobi called me complaining about this the “investor” that is backfilling the swamp behind Bugolobi. I called then deputy IGP, Geoffrey Kasigazi, then KCCA deputy ED, David Luyumbazi, officials of NEMA and ministry of water and environment. The acted quickly and decisively and stopped the massive backfilling. Now the “investor” as at it again massively dumping tones of murrum into the swamp. Who will stop him? Who will arrest who for this failure?
KCCA reflects the overall administrative quagmire in our country. When I visited the arrested leaders of KCCA in Luzira, I was told that Upper Prison and Muchison Bay Prison were built in the 1930s with capacity to host 600 prisoner each. Now each one of them has 3,000 prisoners. It they were double storied, there would be a risk of buildings collapsing over prisoners. Would we arrest the Commissioner General of Prisons who has complained all these years about overcrowding and gotten no positive budgetary support?
Uganda government always find money to invest in less productive projects like PDM and shares in private companies. But it cannot raise money for infrastructure to avert disasters like the one in Kiteezi. Our soldiers live in mud huts which 95% of the country has abandoned. Why don’t we build housing for them since they are the pillar that holds the government in power?
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amwenda@ugindependent.co.ug
Andrew I cannot add anything more to this article. You have hit all issues related to this tragedy. I know you are trying to avoid saying this but the fact of the matter is that Kitezi was planned by Obote’s government . Museveni has been here for nearly 40 years. That Uganda still suffers from simple issues such as disposing garbage is demonstration of Museveni’s inability to manage a country. Quite simply put Museveni has had the longest tenure and enjoyed the most peace any president has had. While he has done some accomplishments but overall he gets an “F” for running a country and moving Uganda into the modern age. He just does not have what it takes. Museveni is a good militia leader but totally inept as a civilian administrator.
But Mr Andrew M9 what exactly did you expect from Mr Tibuhaburwa’s dysfunctional system where a bloated cabinet of over 80 ministers depends on the “wisdom” of an 80+ years old man? Because it’s on record some of his cabinet members claiming that all their lives depend on this old man’s guidance, including the whole country of more than 45 million people! One professor Semakula Kiwanuka once advised that there should never be an election for president untill the natural demise of Mr Tibuhaburwa; then of recent before Hon. Beti Kamya was appointed government ombudsman, she proclaimed to all and sundry that Mr Tibuhaburwa’s wisdom combines the whole cabinet of over 80 ministers plus the enumerable “presidential advisors”!
The country called Uganda looks very ugly in every administrative structure essentially because of a life presidency NRM project. After nearly 40 years in power Uganda is more of war-torn Somalia, South Sudan, Central Africa Republic, Chad among others.
Look at the face value of the Uganda shilling compared with those of our immediate neighbors in the East African region it’s the most useless!
Thank you Mwenda for this informative article.
H.E has done a lot of positive; relative peace and security among others, but we still have poor administrative performance despite the well established structures.
My question for you, why didn’t KCCA allocate portions form other priority projects towards Kiteezi? Couldn’t this have helped slowly in purchase of alternative landfills over the 9 years?
Word on the streets is we had multiple ‘investors’ offering to do a modern twist on waste disposal through recycling, segregation and use of organcic waste in processing manure.
Are we always going to blame M7 for all weaknesses of our city/municipal authorities?
I have read of stories where big cities around the world have invited proposals from the public/universities on how prevalent problems can best be handled. We have professors in this city that have viable ideas for many of Kampala’s problems, are they considered in such planning?
Recent flooding in Spain brought a lot of anger from the public. But we saw the citizens and institutions raise to the challenge despite slow gov’t response. Shouldn’t this happen often enough in our Uganda?
This time, you are too objective. thanks