Time to investigate all Ministers mayors, town clerks since 1986

The bad guys want to kill the good guys. That is the story shaping up in Kampala as the new administration settles in and begins to poke around in the dark, cobwebbed corners of City Hall.

“People are coming to my home and threatening to kill me,” Kampala Capital City Authority Executive Director Jennifer Ssemakula Musisi told MPs this week. “There is one time, when through my (office) messenger, some people tried to poison me. But we are willing to pay the price because we want to see a new Authority.”

About two months ago, Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago said as much on a talk show on KFM radio. Just weeks into office, the man seemed to have lost his shine, though, encouragingly, not his resolve

Telephone calls threatening to snuff out his life were coming thick and fast. They come mostly after he has declined to go have lunch or tea at this or that tycoon’s palatial residence or at a posh hotel.

Some ridiculed former Vice President Gilbert Bukenya six years ago when he cried to this newspaper about a mafia in this country. He was primarily speaking of a political mafia. It turns out the mafiosi have long spread their wings into the world of business both clean and dirty.

According to dictionary.com, the word mafia may refer to “a popular spirit of hostility to legal restraint and to the law, often manifesting itself in criminal acts”, or to “any small powerful or influential group in an organization or field; clique”.

For reasons I do not properly understand – maybe a focus on the war in northern Uganda, maybe a conscious choice to ignore the nettlesome urbanites of Kampala in favour of courting the readily pliant peasants – the NRM government let the city be over the decades. From Christopher Iga to Ssebaana Kizito to Nasser Sebaggala, completely uninspiring leaders all, Kampala became one large centre of decay and disorder.

In true Ugandan style, the kavuyo provided a great opportunity for ruthless cliques to emerge and profiteer. This could not have happened, of course, without the very active connivance of the leadership of the city. It may now be useful to investigate all former mayors and town clerks of Kampala under the Museveni government.

Only through such a process will Kampalans know how the criminal system works in order to fix it well. The piecemeal probes being done now will not go far enough to expose the extent of the rot, the extent of the criminal networks that have reduced Kampala into the worst city outside of Mogadishu as they pocketed billions of shillings.

The mafiosi will fight back, preferring the status quo. Hence the rapid-fire death threats they are issuing. They must be told to shove it. Ms Musisi says she is willing to pay the price. Ditto Mr Lukwago. Very encouraging – not for the mafia gangs of course.

Now President Museveni must come in. He needs to publicly back the lord mayor and the executive director and tell off the mafiosi. The bad economy may have diminished Mr Museveni’s  authority, but he is still the President. He thus needs to use that authority for some good, beyond bullying MPs to change the Constitution and deny bail to protesters.

His government has, after all, allowed corruption, cutting corners, civic irresponsibility to become the generalised and accepted way of doing things. Consider Gen. David Tinyefuza’s response to Ms Musisi’s letter asking him to explain himself over his occupancy of a KCCA house. He ridiculed and threatened her with arrest.

When a parliamentary committee summoned him, he snubbed it. True, Tinyefuza is an officer. Also true, he is not a gentleman. His commander-in-chief must call him to order. His tepid support for Ms Musisi as he spoke on the economic situation on TV last Friday that the lady “should be treated with respect” will not do. The mess in Kampala has occurred mostly on his watch. He must do a lot of heavy lifting too.

It is in the President’s interest as well for Kampala to function given, as this column has often reported quoting a World Bank statistic, the city “generates over 50 per cent of Uganda’s GDP”.

Even with oil cash, Uganda cannot, therefore, become the middle-income country that President Museveni dreams of with a mad Kampala. And to run Kampala effectively, one has to worry about the big stuff – flyovers and mass transit and new landfills – as well as nuts and bolts matters like spotting and fixing a small pothole, replacing a street light bulb. Ms Musisi and Mr Lukwago seem to get it. But first, the mafia gangs must be stopped from striking back.

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