"Mafia is hunting me down using blackmail & Propaganda because of KCCA Road contracts, Mafia wants to swindle the cash" - Lord Mayor Lukwago.

The lord mayor of Kampala, Erias Lukwago has lashed out on all allegations that his politically funded by Gen. Saleh regarding it as blackmail & propaganda by mafia gang.

Lukwago while addressing the press yesterday Jan 4th 2022 said that there is a group of people that has been getting contracts of constructing  City roads but were doing schedule and substandard work hence leading to losses of tax payers money.

"The reason as to why the propaganda is allover media is because i blocked KCCA from giving  the mafia group a contract for the new project of rehabilitating our city roads" - Lukwago 

He further said that he is making investigations in the exaggerated rates by the KCCA technical team while awarding road construction contracts.

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“Mafias are hiking costs of rehabilitating Kampala roads for their own benefits” – Lord Mayor Lukwago

The Lord Mayor of Kampala City, Erias Lukwago has  also revealed that the costs of working on the potholed Kampala roads are totally abnormal and is it’s intentional; being orchestrated by the mafias.

While  addressing journalists at City Hall on Wednesday, Lukwago  also said that  he is very aware of the Mafia operations behind the hiking of costs for constructing and rehabilitating roads in Kampala. He revealed that the racket is big, some are in the central government while others are within the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA).

According to Lukwago, through African Development Bank,  KCCA lined up 31 roads for construction this year,with a total of 69km. The entire work for construction will cost Shs1 trillion which simply means that each kilometre will be constructed at Shs14.4billion.

He said; “What baffles us are the large quantities of bills and inflated unit costs. This is ridiculous and outrageous. These costs are obscenely inflated. Imagine if a kilometre is to cost Shs14.4 billion and you have 2110km of roads in the entire Kampala, how are we going to construct all of them? It means during our lifetime; we shall never finish constructing the roads in Kampala.”

The Lord Mayor of Kampala City, Erias Lukwago has revealed that the costs of working on the potholed Kampala roads are totally abnormal and is it’s intentional; being orchestrated by the mafias.

Lukwago also asserted that there has been an attempt by some officials within the authority to justify this huge cost.

He added that those justifying the hike in costs urge that there are traffic junctions and streets lights.

“In the East African region and entire sub-Saharan region we have the highest cost defeating even those areas where the terrain is difficult to navigate. We are not constructing in mountainous areas like Kisoro that we have to navigate around those terrains. Why do we have such inflated costs?” He asked.

“There is a cartel involving proxies of the regime and functionaries within the system at KCCA. We have been fighting this cartel for quite a long time. They are within the central government, here within the institution (KCCA) and outside the institution. This money is given with one hand and taken away with another,” he said.

Lukwago’s statement follows the recent funds which KCCA announced to run the Kampala City Roads Rehabilitation Project.

KCCA released a list of roads to work on in the five divisions of Kampala which include, Central, Kawempe, Lubaga, Nakawa and Makindye.

According to KCCA spokesperson, Simon Kasyate the whole project is to consume over Shs1 trillion from the African Development Bank (ADB)and the African Development Fund under the Kampala City Roads Rehabilitation Project (KCRRP).

Salim Saleh’s letter to Lord Mayor Lukwago refuses to be fake.

Just when Ugandans were starting to believe that the said letter is ‘fake news’, Ofwono Opondo P’Odel, the Executive Director of Uganda Media Center and a government spokesperson, hinted at it being truthful.

Dear Brother Erias Lukwago, Lord Mayor, Kampala City – Caleb Akandwanaho, famously known by his rebellion moniker Salim Saleh, starts off penning a one-paged letter to Forum for Democratic Change Vice President for Buganda. 

In this letter, written on a notebook page titled Namukenkera Rural Industrial Centre, Saleh reveals what many pessimist political commentators have been saying about Uganda’s opposition politicians – eating from the hands of their oppressors. 

“Am very offended about what you have said about me and the power that am misusing,” Saleh, in fine handwriting, using black ink, wrote to Lukwago.   

That Saleh is offended by Lukwago’s political utterance during the United Forces of Change bogged End of Year prayers and takes off time to pen a personal private missive vindicates what the public has been saying about the regime compromising the opposition.

In the same letter, Saleh writes: “I have withdrawn all the support I have been giving you in your political fights (political) until you apologize,”

“Otherwise Like Archbishop Ssemwogerere said obulimba nobukyaayi bwenkurabye nabwo – Uganda yakusabira,” Saleh concludes the letter in a mixture of English and Luganda. 

Even when it has been referred to as a regime propaganda ploy by the inner circle of the Lord Mayor, the emergence of this letter has startled Ugandans, especially those in the opposition and those who believed in what the likes of Lukwago are doing in the opposition. 

Just when Ugandans were starting to believe that the said letter is ‘fake news’, Ofwono Opondo P’Odel, the Executive Director of Uganda Media Center and a government spokesperson, hinted at it being truthful. 

Cryptically, on Twitter, Opondo reminisced how he ‘saw on numerous occasions a Kampala top politician then having troubles at Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) meeting Saleh in the period 2016/17 at Serene Hotel in Mutundwe.’

Many Ugandans have read between the lines to insinuate that the said troubled top politician at KCCA was indeed, Lukwago, who at the time was an embattled Lord Mayor having run-ins with government through the KCCA Minister.

The Investigator News, an online publication, in this article, details how Lukwago and Saleh met at Serena Hotel in Mutudwe giving credence to what Opondo cryptically said.

“It was during those days when the General had pitched camp at Mutundwe-premised Serene Suits. It is public knowledge, that whenever and wherever Gen. Saleh camps, it automatically becomes the Defacto centre of power,” the publication wrote on Wednesday. 

“Mayor Lukwago`s 2011-2016 term was a nightmare to him. It was marred with battles between him and the then KCCA iron Lady Jenifer Musisi, Kampala Affairs Minister of the time Frank Tumwebaze and at the helm, the main man himself, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni,” it further wrote.

Political pundit, Charles Rwomushana in trying to understand ‘the confusion surrounding the Lukwago Saleh Axis’ says he has ‘known for a long time and raised it publicly that the entire so-called opposition you see today is a construct of Gen Salim Saleh, manned by the Museveni Deep State for strategic security reasons.’