Kiteezi tragedy: how decade of institutional failure trapped KCCA bosses

Last week, the Kasangati Magistrate’s court formally committed former KCCA executive director Dorothy Kisaka together with her deputy David Luyimbazi to the High court for trial over manslaughter for the August 10, 2024 waste slide at Kiteezi landfill (KLF) that killed 35 people.

As GEOFREY SERUGO writes, the collapse at Kiteezi was a catastrophic consequence of chronic government neglect, multijurisdictional dysfunction, and regulatory abdication stretching back more than a decade.

The prosecution of Kisaka and Luyimbazi follows an investigation report by Anne Twinomugisha Muhairwe, the deputy inspector general of government (IGG).

For starters, KLF’s operational permit expired in 2013. The National Environment Management Authority (Nema), the national regulator, declined to renew that license but paradoxically allowed KCCA to continue operations under informal grace periods and correspondence.

This tacit tolerance lasted eleven years, despite legal powers under the Nema Act to shut down the facility. Meanwhile, leachate treatment ceased in 2015. Daily waste compaction, slope stabilization, and drainage systems were abandoned around the same time. What’s more, KCCA’s budget requests to decommission KLF were made annually since 2015, consistently stating a need of Shs 235 billion to transition to a modern engineered landfill.

Records from Muhairwe’s report show that each year, these requests were classified as “unfunded priorities” by the ministry of Finance and parliament.

Lastly, the volume of waste received at KLF surged to over 450,000 tonnes per year, driven not only by Kampala but also by surrounding municipalities like Wakiso, Mukono, Nansana, Entebbe, and Makindye Ssabagabo, none of which had their own engineered landfill sites.

“Facts I know show that KLF, despite being overstretched and unlicensed, became a de facto national dump site, with KCCA alone left to shoulder the blame,” says Amanda Ngabirano, an urban planner and academic.

For wider perspective, when the KLF environmental license expired in 2013, its continued operation fell under a cloud of regulatory ambiguity. Why Nema did not enforce closure is baffling even as risks escalated and the facility reached saturation point.

“It is ironic that whereas Nema had the power to close the non-compliant facility under Section 129 [of the Nema Act], it chose not to, not out of ignorance, but because it tacitly accepted the harsh reality. See, there was nowhere else to send the waste, and government had not funded an alternative,” says Charles Bbosa, an environmentalist.

Records show that by 2015, leachate treatment systems had failed, daily cover had ceased, and dangerous waste cliffs had formed. Multiple technical assessments, including internal audits and environmental warnings, reiterated the same: KLF was collapsing slowly.

Notably, these engineering and operational failures fall under the statutory and functional mandate of the directorate of Public Health and Environment (DPHE). This directorate had control over landfill operations, contractor oversight, site access and environmental compliance.

Meanwhile, KCCA records show the city was expected to maintain a collapsing landfill on an annual Shs 3.1 billion operational budget, which, according to experts, was barely enough for basic site maintenance, let alone a structural overhaul.

In fact, the IGG report notes that more than 60% of the waste at KLF came from outside Kampala, including Wakiso, Mukono, Nansana, Entebbe, Kira, and Makindye Ssabagabo. The report acknowledges that these jurisdictions had no functional landfills and continued to rely on KLF with Nema’s full knowledge. Interestingly, not a single official from these local governments or national regulators has been charged.

At the heart of the prosecution’s grounds is that Kisaka and Luyimbazi negligently allowed the Kiteezi landfill to deteriorate, triggering a catastrophic collapse.

“On April 18, 2024 the officer landfill management made and submitted a report to the accused persons and KCCA management on the persistent issues at KLF. In the report, the officer observed that continued operation of KLF beyond its capacity had led to significant challenges jeopardizing public health, safety, and the environment,” reads the submissions from Lino Anguzu, the assistant director of public prosecutions.

“He pointed out the formation of waste cliffs, unstable slopes, imminent risks to both the operational efficiency of waste management services and the safety of surrounding communities. He called for immediate interventions to avert further escalation of risks and safeguard the well-being of neighbouring communities. Both Kisaka and Luyimbazi were aware of this report or ought to have been aware of this report but neglected to act on it. The report shall be used as evidence at the trial.”

Incidentally, these failures occurred five to nine years before Kisaka and Luyimbazi took office in 2020. Edward Semambya, a structural engineer, says these conditions were inherited as a result of years of underinvestment, overloading from multiple jurisdictions and structural indifference from national authorities.

“To criminally indict the two officers who assumed leadership long after these failures had crystallized is to confuse causation with presence, a logic that offends both legal doctrine and common sense,” he says.

“Technically, neither Kisaka nor Luyimbazi had technical oversight, budgetary discretion, or statutory obligation to directly manage these functions. But legally, they have to carry the cross.”

On any other day, Luyimbazi would have walked away scot-free but the DPP insists that the service directorate of Public Health and Environment, where solid waste management falls, was directly under his supervision.

“As such, he was directly responsible for overseeing the operations and management of KLF at the time of its collapse and immediately before,” reads the pleadings of Lino Anguzu, the assistant director of public prosecutions.

Without going through the merits of the case, it remains to be seen how court will rule on the matter.