Why KCCA ED Kisaka is a target of smear campaign

The Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) is once again a target of smear campaign with a regurgitated wave of allegations of impropriety at the city administration— targeting the Executive Director Dorothy Kisaka.

It has now emerged that Ms. Kisaka is being targeted for blocking cash and contracts to a number of ghost city SACCOs, a headache for some specific political players who were part of the racket profiteering from the fraud.

It is understood that some political heavy weights from city who previously enjoyed cash from the ghost SACCOs have since decided to target Kisaka to dislodge her from the city Executive Director’s job.

However, it has now emerged that the political leaders who enjoyed benefits from the SACCO fraud have combined with some elements inside the city administration unhappy with tighter controls introduced by Ms. Kisaka in some departments and an upcoming restructuring of a number of other areas on the other hand.

“Naturally, those who have been benefitting from ghost SACCOs are not happy, with her” a source noted, mentioned ” because the gray areas she closed, the beneficiaries who also involve key political figures, are fighting back”.

For example, last week, KCCA cleaners protested against the allocation of cleaning tenders to Seven Hills and the Ghetto Youth. A stop source told the website that political leaders in Kampala sponsored the protest, on a day, the parliamentary committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises started its inquiry into KCCA over queries raised by the Auditor General.

“Its an absolute smear campaign. They needed this to achieve blackmail against her since Parliament was starting it’s role on some of the issues raised by the Auditor General,” the sources who sits close to the high table of the NRM government said.

KCCA casual workers clean city roads and toilets, collect and sort garbage, desilt roadside drainage channels, plant and prune trees, among other tasks.

Last December, KCCA initiated a bidding process that required interested parties (only SACCOS) to apply for provision of cleaning, landscaping and desilting services.

On February 22, 2023, the online procurement system indicated that out of 20 slots advertised, 15 were awarded to the four of the Seven Hills SACCOS. Others were found to be ghost SACCOs, a source with a wide knowledge on the matter told this website.

KCCA Executive Director Dorothy Kisaka said the SACCOS system was evaluated and reassessed to ensure the best performance and value for money.

“The goal of the SACCOS is to ensure that more people are entering the money economy in accordance with government policy announced by the NRM government, ” Ms. Kisaka told MPs last week.

“The SACCOS also promotes a savings culture and enables groups to access government funding. All registered Sacco members must have a government identity and a banking account. KCCA is promoting the culture of inclusiveness of all stakeholders in the city irrespective of their backgrounds, ” she added.

“We surely need these workers to help us in cleaning the city because we have been co-operating with their SACCO leaders ever since this whole saga started,” said Kisaka.

She explained that SACCOs whose details are clear as per latest guidelines would have their contracts renewed.

Background

Since 2017, all the KCCA casual workers have been organised into divisional SACCOS: Central division, Kawempe, Rubaga, Nakawa and Makindye, with a current membership of over 3,500 workers.

Central has 905, Makindye 824, Rubaga 507, Nakawa 710 and Kawempe 623 – all totaling to 3,569 casual workers.

In 2020, the SACCOS were offered 18 months’ contracts to provide cleaning services under the reservation scheme.

Their contracts expired on September 15, 2021. Since then, all the casual workers were taken up by KCCA to date.

by  Ronald Mayega