By Betty Nambooze
In 2015, Frank Tumwebaze brought to Parliament an ammendment bill which sought to abolish the elections of the Lord Mayor by universal adult suffrage among other funny proposals basically meant to lessen the powers of elected leaders.
When Beti Kamya sold herself to the junta in exchange of an empty Kampala Ministry, she further ammended the Ammendment bill to include a clause that sought to make her the political head of not only Kampala but also the Metropolitan Area.
Strategically using our experience in Parliament we fought the ammendment and ended up with a completely different ammendment to the KCCA Act. The new law reinstated the Lord Mayor in a position that was held by the past Mayors of the City and even more, we threw out the Metropolitan authority and curtailed the powers of the Executive director to make him/her an equivalent to a CAO in the district.
The creation of the Office of the City Speaker was done because the Lord Mayor had been given powers and there was need to separate the powers of the three arms of Government. The Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago after assuming his full powers will willingly cede the role of chairing authority meetings to the Speaker, who by all means will be one of our trusted cadres since we have the majolity councillors in the authority. The Lord Mayor and Division Mayors will also appoint five Ministers to work with them.
It has therefore suprised me to see Bukedde acting as a messenger of the devil playing on the minds of our ordinary people to wage a psychologic war and make people falsely believe that the Lord Mayor.and Division Mayors lost power in the new arrangement. Just ask yourself how Nambooze and Ssegona would have championed a law disempowering the Office of the Lord Mayor? Does Beti Kamya and Bukedde wish to tell us that Museveni is powerless because Kadaga chairs Parliament?
By Beti Kamya hurriedly writting to the Executive Director to order the elections of the Speaker instead of performing her role as Minister to appoint a day for the commercement of the new law and request for the gazetment of the same, is to attempt to hoodwick the public into believing that the Lord Mayor is sour grapping over the same law….most probably she still has a hangover of the law that Parliament threw out or she is setting herself up to break the new law.That is why we still need a strong person in the city leadership to be able to check this abuse of power.
As we stand now in Kampala its only Beti Kamya who lost power to Kusasira,Butcherman,Sipappa and Full figure because her role was to mobilise political support for Museveni a thing she nolonger has monopoly over these days. Its ironical that Beti Kamya is ordering Eng.Kitaka who is illegally in Office to supervise an election! Fuuny still, Bukedde is the paper that has been running stories to depict the Lord Mayor’s Office as powerless….where did the power that is reportedly lost came from and why do they attach it to Lukwago as a person?
In my capacity as the People’s Minister incharge of Kampala am so happy that Museveni has finally conceeded defeat and signed into law this ammendment which basically put into action the ruling of court in the case of Nabilah Naggayi. We wish to conglaturate his Lordship Erias Lukwago for leading the battle for rule of law and constitutionalism in the Capital City.
Am cautioning the City councillors not to fight each other for the available positions as the People’s Government in whose hand Kampala is,will sit with the Lord Mayor , Division mayors and councillors to work out a formular that will put the positions of Speakers and Secretaries in the hands of the right people. To us the battle for Kampala is just starting and we will not allow anyone to exploit our achievements for personal glorification.
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