Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago has branded minister in charge of Kampala Betty Kamya an idle mind who has no work to do, but issue fake directives.
Appearing on NBS this morning, Lukwago said Kamya’s ministry is the only one without a permanent secretary.
Lukwago was reacting to a question about a letter written by Kamya on Tuesday this week, directing Nakivubo parkyar venders to vacate the land within 30 days, to pave way for re-development.
According to Lukwago, the minister abused her powers by issuing the declaration without discussing it with cabinet as should have been under the law.
He says KCCA had last week asked that the Nakivubo matter is put on hold so as to find a solution. Only for the president to write to Kamya directing her to give the land to businessman Ham, who is allegedly planning to re-develop it.
“This war memorial stadium serves two purposes, in addition to being a sports facility, it is a monument of sorts. A monument must have a particular design which we all agree to as stakeholders. It’s not up to Ham, to come up with ideas, present them to the president. How can a head of state allocate himself powers to allocate land?”
Lukwago added that Minister Kamya was too fast to issue the declaration chasing traders away. “Section79 of the KCCA Act is very clear. The minister can vary or rescind a decision taken by the authority, if it is in contravention of the government police or any given law, that power is not absolute, it is qualified. It says, with approval of cabinet.”
Lukwago argues that if the minister is to issue a directive to the authority, it should not be her own ideas but the directive has to be approved by the cabinet. He dared the minister to present a cabinet memo to the authority leadership indicating that cabinet sat and discussed the issues KCCA resolved in the meeting.
According to the Lord Mayor, the minister in her declaration does not indicate that she had met with cabinet. “There is nothing on record to indicate that cabinet ever sat and deliberated on this matter.
“The minister is idle. They created a serious ministry, all these ministers have got an infrastructure and a budget to operate, and this minister has got no budget in KCCA, because we have our own budget and accounting officer who is the Executive Director. Are you suggesting that the permanent secretary for Kampala is the ED? Does she have a PS?” Lukwago told the nation.
He says her duty is to oversee what is done at KCCA to represent the Central government, a job that should have been done by the RCC.
