Kisanjufu village is about two kilometres off the Gayaza-Kalagi road, just after Nakasajja but before Ddundu near the home of former vice president, Speciosa Wandira Kazibwe. It is here in 1982 or thereabout [Kitatta’s father says he doesn’t remember the exact birthday] that Kitatta was born and grew up.
His mother, Hajati Hasifa, was married to Ali Kayondo [RIP] with whom he had five children. However, according to neighbours who spoke to this writer on condition of anonymity, one of the children, Abadallah Kitatta, was an illegitimate child.
When Hasifa was pushed to disclose his paternity, she said indeed the kid was fathered by Hajji Mahmoud Naggoba of Kasenene village. But before this revelation, Kitatta had started school at Kalagala primary school. When his mother shifted to Kitagobwa, so did Kitatta, joining Kitagobwa Church of Uganda primary school where he completed his primary seven.
After P7, he was sent to his father in Kasenene village who enrolled him into Namasumbi secondary school, also in Kyampisi sub-county, Mukono district. He dropped out in senior two and rejoined his mother in Kitagobwa.
Later, he started out as a boda boda rider in Kasangati and later moved to Nateete where he cut his teeth in the wild transport business. Kanyike Kiviiri, the leader of the Kampala Metropolitan Boda boda Entrepreneurs Association, a rival group to Kitatta’s Boda Boda 2010, said Kitattta gained prominence after the disbandment of Kampala Union Boda Boda Cyclist Association (Kuboca).
Kitatta who then was the NRM chairman for Lubaga division accused Kuboca of being dominated by the opposition who burnt Nateete police station during the infamous 2009 Buganda riots.
Using Moses Kafeero who was then the regional police commander, Kitatta convinced Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura to disband the organisation.
“We agreed to have elections which were later stopped but Kitatta went ahead and unilaterally held them hence the formation of his Boda Boda 2010,” says Kiviiri, whose association he says has 48,200 members.
“He calls himself the patron but he is everything. He sacked Kagimu Sharif who was the Kampala district chairman because he cooperated with KCCA to have boda boda riders registered,” Kiviiri says.
At two of his father’s homes in Kasenene, none of his two stepmothers nor stepsisters and brothers was willing to discuss Kitatta’s childhood. Hajji Naggoba who, according to his family members, can speak about the matter, had gone to Kampala on Sunday and was yet to return.
In a short telephone interview, Naggoba said he couldn’t discuss the matter because he was in the middle of “something.” Before he hung up, he, however, said he was looking for his son in all police stations around Kampala.
“No one has told me anything, either why he was arrested or where they are keeping him. As a parent, I’m concerned about him but not worried because I know he is in the hands of government which I think cannot harm him. I’m going to go to all police stations where he might be and hopefully they will allow me talk to him,” Naggoba said.
But as Naggoba and people in his home are reluctant to delve into the matter, residents of the four villages are not.
“You might think Kitatta is dead,” one woman at Kasenene tells another in Luganda as she asks for a mortar and pestle to go pound her groundnuts for supper sauce.
“Yiiiiiii batusubizza emmere,” a colleague replies. Apparently Kitatta was planning to hold a shukur [thanksgiving] for his father who he recently bankrolled to go to Mecca for hajj.
Joined by another woman, the three debate whether Kitatta was framed or is indeed guilty as charged.
“The cases against him are serious; murder and theft are really big. If I was his mother, I would visit him in prison,” the elder of the three women says. The two nod in agreement.
At Baamutakudde village, Badru Ssozi is the secretary of the village. He says they have no problem with Kitatta. If anything, he is good news.
“He has helped many people, especially the youth to get employment,” Ssozi says.
By employment Ssozi means Kitatta giving countless boda bodas on loan to youths. He also has a maize milling machine at Nakasajja town although of late it has not been operational.
Ssozi says Kitatta has also been planning to extend electricity to the villages of Baamutakudde, Kasenene and Nakkumbo. Kitatta has built a striking mansion on a 20-acre piece of land in Nakkumbo, not far away from his father’s houses.
Acquiring the piece of land wasn’t without controversy. Eight of the 20 acres were acquired forcefully from an agriculturalist with three degrees, Nelson Wajja. Dr Wajja says he has tried to seek justice to no avail.
“I have been a victim of Kitatta’s impunity and I’m yet to recover from it,” Wajja said in a telephone interview.
Wajja says he was with Kayihura at Makerere University at the same time where they were both residents of the militant Northcote, (present-day Nsibirwa) hall.
“I wonder how an educated man like him can associate with lumpens of Kitatta’s calibre,” Wajja says.
He reveals that he wrote to Kayihura to try and rein in his man but in vain. Kayihura never responded to any of the letters. Wajja wonders if Kitatta can turn against a village-mate who he grew up seeing, how about those he doesn’t know?
Of the eight acres, Wajja had planted 300 pine trees on one of them. But all these trees were taken and now many of them have been harvested by Kitatta who reportedly told him “power is more important than the law.”
“I think he got money from the previous elections and went and fraudulently bought off my land, fencing it off, including the trees. I went to Naggalama police station but the DPC said he couldn’t do anything. Can you imagine a career police officer has to first consult Kitatta. I lost my confidence in the police,” Wajja laments.
“I’m looking for ways to get justice. It’s not like the state is clamping down on Kitatta but this is a war between security bosses. I won’t be surprised if after a few days he comes out in a much more stronger position,” Wajja says.
Kiviiri says they have all along complained about Kitatta’s mistreatment.
“Boda boda riders have been beaten; some have been killed yet many others have lost their boda bodas. You find a person who has no driving permit asking another to produce his. They ask for logbooks as if they are URA,” Kiviiri told us in a telephone conversation.
He adds that whenever they tried to report these criminal acts, the police at best ignored them and at worst locked them up.
“Kitatta is a friend to the IGP; when a matter involves him what the IGP would do before taking any action is first consult him… We will be even happier if we see him boarding a bus to Luzira,” Kiviiri says.
bakerbatte@observer.ug
