Before his sudden death from a road accident last weekend, I met George Ninsiima Agaba in August through a mutual friend at a hangout in a city suburb.
He appeared cheerful but reserved. “I have never been comfortable around journalists,” Agaba said, his eyes darting from one direction to another, as if he was on the lookout for something. For the most part of our conversation, Agaba appeared shy and rarely made direct eye contact.
Our conversation lasted about an hour and spanned several subjects from politics to business to his controversial life at KCCA, where he served as director for physical planning. He boasted about how he had created an organized city during his tenure.
“I handled street vendors. You could not build some of the buildings I see in the city today under my watch,” he said, adding that he had come up with a list of buildings that were to be demolished because they did not comply with the KCCA approved plans.
“Why didn’t you demolish them? Were you just bluffing?” I asked him.
“You know these things. The people above intervened,” he said, admitting that his authority was limited and that decision-making in this country has become much politicized.
He had a low opinion of people who had replaced him at the physical planning directorate, saying they could not do the things he did because they did not have the experience. In fact he had gone to court challenging KCCA’s decision to appoint Moses Atwine as his successor, saying he lacked qualifications.
“You need to do that story,” he told me, promising to get documents to press his case.
LUZIRA INCIDENT
Did he ever regret the Luzira incident in 2012 in which his bodyguard shot and killed a person during an operation to demolish illegal structures? “Not at all,” he told me.
“I was doing my work. My life was in danger. How would you have handled it?” he threw back the question at me. “I would have called off the operation,” I said, before Agaba interjected: “Then you are not a firm person.”
About Jennifer Musisi, the executive director of KCCA, Agaba said she had “lost direction” the moment she allowed politicians to dictate how the authority works.
“She is intelligent and hardworking but she plays too much into the hands of politicians, including those in the NRM,” Agaba said.
He said Musisi had been misled to sack him by people who were fighting him. Our conversation was brought to an abrupt end when Agaba received a phone call and excused himself.
When he came back, he said he needed to go and meet someone urgently. “We shall continue the conversation,” he said as he bade farewell.
A second meeting never took place. Agaba died in a motor accident on Saturday. Other passengers in the vehicle, including President Museveni’s sister Violet Kajubiri Froelich, her bodyguard and the driver, Joseph Kyaligonza, escaped with injuries.
WHO WAS AGABA?
Agaba was born on October 25, 1976 in Nabitanga, Ntuusi sub-county, Sembabule district. He was a protégé of Sam Kutesa, the minister for Foreign Affairs, and he gladly fought the minister’s political wars against Theodore Ssekikubo, the Lwemiyaga MP.
For instance, in 2010 after violence dogged the NRM primaries in Lwemiyaga, police investigated Agaba for allegedly threatening to shoot Ssekikubo’s supporters. He denied the charges.
In 2011 when he was appointed director for physical planning at KCCA, there were claims he didn’t have the requisite qualifications and experience. Agaba had been the deputy director for planning during the defunct KCC.
His most controversial moment came in January 2012, when he was accused alongside his bodyguard, Santos Komakech Makmot, of shooting and killing one person and injuring five others during a KCCA eviction exercise in Luzira.
Agaba and Makmot were later cleared of the murder charges by High court at Nakawa and in April 2013 he was reinstated as director for physical planning at KCCA. But he was sacked a year later by Musisi over allegations of corruption.
ekiggundu@observer.ug
