Kampala’s main problem is Museveni (Uganda)

Three developments took place in Kampala last week – President Yoweri Museveni toured the city at night; former Kampala mayor Al-Hajji Nasser Ntege Sebaggala got evicted from the Town Clerk’s residence, and tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia fenced off the land near Mulago hospital that the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) has vacated.
The three events, when carefully examined, give you a hint of the troubles our city is facing. The visit by Museveni presents him as a caring leader who finally wants to sort out Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA)’s problems. One will ask why he is eager to sort it now and not yesterday.
The truth of the matter is that Museveni gained full control of the city during the first two months of the Sebaggala administration; together they have been running the city. Indeed, both Museveni and Sebaggala once toured the city together before retiring for lunch at the residence of one of Museveni’s daughters in Luzira.
The recent tour was, therefore, an artificial show of commitment which is not there. But most fundamentally, why has Museveni allowed thugs to rob Kampala of its prime property, especially land? Of course the President will say he was not in charge, but then how come Sebaggala needed his permission and endorsement before grabbing the Town Clerk’s residence?
The only excuse the former mayor has given for grabbing this house is that the President gave it to him! It is as if to suggest that if you want to steal or grab public property, all you need is Mr Museveni’s permission, which in most cases he has given.
Even former Vice President, Prof Gilbert Balibaseka Bukenya, now before courts of law, says if he ever committed any acts of abuse of office or corruption during the preparations for the 2007 CHOGM which he headed, he did so in the name of the President.
You have read the story of new Information Minister, Mary Busingye Karooro Okurut and former Kabarole Woman MP, Margaret Muhanga Mugisa. They just needed Museveni’s permission to grab Uganda Broadcasting Corporation’s land in Bugolobi. So, the same Museveni who now wants to create an impression that he cares for Kampala, has been part and parcel of its problems.
In fact, Museveni has given away every piece of land in his control under the guise of development. I am now even more worried that more schools and hospitals will be given away under the new administrative order that gives Museveni a bigger controlling stake in the affairs of the city.
The only difference is that Museveni has refused to live with the fact that Erias Lukwago is the Lord Mayor duly elected by the people of Kampala. In fact, Lukwago is the main trustee of the properties in Kampala. Jennifer Musisi had started well, but I think her undoing is to think that the city belongs to Museveni. At City Hall, I am told she behaves like an assistant or farm manager of Museveni.
The biggest problem in Kampala is that of ownership and control. The voters elected Lukwago and it is him they want to run their affairs. Any attempt to circumvent the will of the people will create secondary wars, and I hope both Museveni and Jennifer Musisi are aware of that.
Except with a big mind shift, Museveni has no capacity to develop the city. In fact, many development plans drawn by successive administrations, including his own ministers, were thwarted by him.
Sebaggala, although he later turned into a monster, moved to shift the bus parks to the city outskirts, but after a meeting with some bus owners from western Uganda, Museveni blocked it. A bus terminal built in Nateete to decongest the city, therefore, wasn’t operationalised. Former Works minister, Eng John Nasasira, moved to significantly reduce, or almost remove, boda boda from the congested so-called Central Business District, but again Museveni stopped him.
And he allowed the Sebaggala administration to dish out land like the world was coming to an end, and to corruptly award road, transport and other contracts.
He is now moving to block Lukwago from sorting out the UTODA mess.
The giving away of the CMI land to Sudhir Ruparelia falls under the above. Arbitrariness, especially in giving away prime land in Kampala, will have to stop or else we should brace ourselves for painful evictions, like the one of Sebaggala. Land in Kampala doesn’t belong to Museveni and you all know that you cannot give what you don’t own.

The author is Kyadondo East MP.
Written by Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda   

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