Beti Kamya, the minister for Kampala, has instructed Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) not to pay Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago’s salary arrears worth about Shs 600m until the courts decide whether he was lawfully removed from office in November 2013.
In a letter dated January 2, 2017 to Jennifer Musisi, the KCCA executive director, the minister said: “The attorney general’s official interpretation of the legal process that began in May 2013 and continued to 21st August 2014 is that the matter of the Lord Mayor’s emoluments [from] November 2013 to May 2016 can only be addressed after the court of appeal and the Supreme court have conclusively determined whether the lord mayor was lawfully removed from the office.”
Kamya’s letter is copied to Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, the prime minister, among other government officials. Lukwago is demanding Shs 650 million in arrears between November 2013 and May 2016, before he started another term.
Reacting to the letter, Lukwago yesterday referred to Kamya as an “amateur” and “novice” in KCCA affairs.
“She is parading [President] Museveni’s impunity. The available judgment is that of Justice [Lydia] Mugambe confirming Justice Yasin Nyanzi’s ruling [that Lukwago’s impeachment was null and void]. There is no appeal both in the Court of Appeal and Supreme court,” he said.
Lukwago added that he will not kneel before the minister to get what is duly his.
RECONCILIATION IN BALANCE?
The letter is likely to scuttle reconciliatory efforts aimed at resolving the disagreements between Kamya and Lukwago initiated by KCCA. We reported last month that the two had agreed to meet to iron out their differences (See: Lukwago, Kamya now set to talk December 19).
Yet even before Kamya’s letter, Lukwago had told us that he was not eager to meet Kamya.
“Problem number one, President Museveni while appointing Kamya minister must have given her instructions to come and make my life difficult, because he suffered a humiliating defeat in Kampala in the February general election. He did not get a single mayor, no MP apart from Muhammad Nsereko [Kampala central] who he is not sure where he falls, and very few NRM lord councillors,” Lukwago told us, in reaction to our first story.
Lukwago alleged that using his younger brother Gen Salim Saleh, Museveni sourced for Kamya to fight him and Dr Kizza Besigye, the former FDC leader. He accuses Kamya of mobilizing opposition division mayors, MPs and councillors to join her in Museveni’s government.
Lukwago said his second problem with Kamya is her attempt to usurp his powers and passing herself off as the head of the authority to the extent of issuing policy statements, contrary to the law.
According to Section 79 of KCCA Act, the minster’s powers include varying or rescinding any authority decision which is in contravention of any law, or government policy, with the approval of cabinet.
On the other hand, section 11 of the Act mentions some of the functions of the lord mayor, which include being the political head of the capital city, presiding over authority meetings and performing ceremonial and civil functions, among other things.
“If she wanted to be the lord mayor, she should have contested for it but even for the lesser position [MP] she chose to contest for, she was defeated. In KCCA, the RCC [resident city commissioner] is, according to Section 72, the one supposed to directly represent the president and government,” Lukwago said.
Kamya in reply told us she had welcomed the idea of the talks although she disagreed with the terms Lukwago set for the meeting. Separately, Lt Francis Matovu, the minister’s personal assistant in charge of special duties, told The Observer that her response will depend on what the two emissaries come up with.
The emissaries are deputy lord mayor Sarah Kanyike Ssebaggala and acting KCCA deputy executive director Andrew Kitaka. Kanyike told us last week that they intend to contact Kamya in due course. But another source within KCCA told us recently that Kamya told Kanyike to write to her (Kamya) and formally communicate the agenda of her meeting with Lukwago.
A close associate of Kamya’s who did not want to be named told us last week that the minister had tried her best to see that she works closely with Lukwago but the latter has been “too defiant”.
“If Lukwago blames Kamya for mobilizing for Museveni using KCCA structures, why is he fighting the president through defiance using the same structures? I heard him on Top Radio vowing that he would rather die than work with Museveni,” the associate said.
slubwama@observer.ug