Kampala Capital City Authority councilors have this morning taken a decision to name Nakivubo place Road after the late Mayor Dr. John Ssebaana Kizito.
The decision was reached during a sitting to pay last respects to the former Kampala Mayor at City hall on Thursday morning. The casket was received by the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, Sarah Kanyike his deputy, and Jennifer Musisi, the KCCA Executive Director a few minutes after 8am.
It was then wheeled to the Mayor’s Parlour where councilors paid tribute to the fallen businessman.
During the sitting, Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago raised a concern that all city roads were named after foreign leaders, as if Ugandan leaders were not good enough.
He pointed at Nkrumah road, Nasser Road, Gadaffi Road among others, named after African leaders, instead of Ugandans that have diligently served their country.
KCCA roads manager, Patrick Kaweesa, presented six roads but councillors voted to name Nakivubo Place after Ssebaana, who successfully combined politics and business in a career spanning five decades.
Kaweesa presented the details of the 610 metre road to the council and Lukwago presented justifications for renaming the road after Ssebaana.
Ssebaana took over office as the mayor of Kampala in June 1999 replacing Sarah Muwonge Nkonge who was mayor in acting capacity. Nkonge had replaced Alhaj Nasser Ntege Ssebaggala, who was elected in 1998 but was shortly after taking office arrested in the US on charges of fraud.
Deputy Lord Mayor Sarah Kanyike, who served as council speaker during Ssebaana's tenure, described him as man who united all council members. She said Ssebaana appointed two National Resistance Movement (NRM) councillors as secretaries (ministers), a move that united the city council.
Kanyike said Ssebaana solicited for funds from donors to construct Nakivubo Channel. She said the deceased politician also solicited for funds to construct Lubaga and Central Division headquarters. It was also during his tenure that Kampala Institutional and Infrastructure Development Programme (KIIDP) started.
Nakawa Division councillor Kennedy Okello, who seconded the motion to name Nakivubo Place after Ssebaana, described the departed politician and businessman as a smart man. "The late John Ssebaana Kizito was a forward looking man…he moved to restore trade order in the city at a time when most politicians thought he was signing his death warrant. He moved vendors from the street….He moved to decongest the city, as you are all aware we are still grappling with the same challenge. You all recall the initiative on green number plates and his attempt to ensure that we have an orderly transport system," Okello said.
Kampala state minister Benny Namugwanya who presented Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said Ssebaana was a patriotic Ugandan who served the country with enthusiasm and distinction.
She said Ssebaana's contribution to Uganda cuts across many fields including business, politics and civil service. Though a member of the Democratic Party, Namugwanya said Ssebaana believed in unity of purpose and never allowed political differences to stand in the way of serving people across the political divide.
Born in 1934, John Ssebaana Kizito also served as president of DP between 2005 and 2010. In 2006 the economist and businessman stood for the highest office, being one of the six candidates who challenged President Yoweri Museveni for the position.
A graduate of Makerere University and the University of Oregon in Eugene, in the United States where he obtained a Masters in Economics in 1960, Ssebaana served in virtually all governments in post-independence Uganda.
A special sitting of Parliament is being held today in his honour, having represented Kampala South, and later Makindye East, in the 1980s and early 1990s. He will be buried on Saturday in Luweero district.
He joins a growing list of senior politicians who passed on this year. These include Jehoash Mayanja Nkangi, a politician, legislator and lawyer who died in March aged 85. He was followed, in May, by Boniface Byanyima, an articulate legislator, educationist and principled politician who represented Ankole West in parliament in the 1960s. He was 97, and like Ssebaana, he served and remained a member of DP till his death. On June 24, Maria Mutagamba, a former minister and legislator who served DP before crossing to join the ruling NRM party, died aged 65.
