Three sacked KCCA bosses arrested in CID over Kiteezi landfill collapse

The sacked Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) managing director, Dorothy Kisaka, her deputy David Luyimbazi and the director of public health, Dr. Daniel Okello, were arrested at the CID headquarters in Kampala where they had reported for questioning over their alleged criminal negligence which led to the killing of at least 35 people when rubbish collapsed on houses at the Kiteezi landfill site.
According to police spokesperson ACP Rusoke Kituuma, the three appeared at the CID today (October 16) and were interrogated for hours before being arrested.

“When we announced on Monday, October 14, 2024 that we had former KCCA Executive Director Dorothy Kisaka, former Deputy Executive Director David Luyimbazi and former Director of Public Health and Environment Dr. Daniel Okello, had been summoned. They showed up at the CID headquarters today, October 16, 2024 and cooperated with our team,” said ACP Kituuma.
Police said they would be taken to court and charged.

“Due to the ongoing investigation by the Public Prosecution Service, the three former officers of KCCA have been arrested and will be charged in court,” ACP Kituuma added in a statement released on Police-X-Mobile, without revealing when they will be arraigned in court .

Ms Kisaka assumed office on July 23, 2020 following an initial recommendation from President Museveni and subsequent approval by the Public Service Commission.
According to the KCCA Act 2011, their responsibilities included, inter alia, overseeing the provision of quality services in the city of Kampala, promoting order and commerce in the city, managing public resources of the authority and providing technical advice to the authority.

Ms Kisaka replaced Ms Jennifer Musisi, who resigned in 2018.
The State House press statement on September 24 said President Museveni had sacked top KCCA officials following the Inspector General of Government (IGG) report on the Kiteezi landfill disaster.
Although Ms Kisaka’s sacking was triggered by the Kiteezi incident on August 10, which left 35 people dead and property worth millions of shillings destroyed, analysts say there were other causes too.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say their leadership and administrative style is to blame. We need to look at the overall public administration system in the country and the distribution of resources, which has been a problem for a very long time,” Ms Hannah told Muzee Monitor in an interview yesterday.
Ms Muzee, a part-time lecturer at Kyambogo University’s Department of Political Science and Public Administration, said Ms Kisaka could have suffered under the weight of these other factors which were clearly beyond her control.

The lecturer is referring to the time when Ms Kisaka said the authority was financially forced to repair the poor roads in the city. This came at the height of the Kampala Pothole Exhibition 2023 on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), which showed the terrible state of roads in the capital.
After the heat of the exhibition, Ms Kisaka later told journalists that the KCCA needed between Shs75 billion and Shs100 billion annually to effectively maintain the roads but was only getting Shs26b for the task.

Although they told Ugandans that the agency was financially constrained, all that mattered to them was the results. Ms Kisaka, unlike a section of other Ugandans, was not considered aggressive enough to demand resources to carry out the activities envisaged in her programme.

“This job required an aggressive and forceful personality that I did not see in Dorothy. I believe that the lack of these qualities also contributed to their downfall. You can’t just keep playing softball when your house is under fire. She should have fought harder,” said Robert Ssali, an international relations and diplomacy student.

Other factors
A lawyer by profession, Ms. Kisaka practiced her profession at Kiyimbi-Kisaka and Company Advocates between 1999 and 2014. Before taking up the position at KCCA, Ms. Kisaka was a Senior Advisor to the President in the Prime Minister’s Office (OPM), where she coordinated both political and non-political actors to implement public policy. She previously worked as a commissioner in the electoral commission between 2010 and 2014.
Despite serving in different capacities with the respective organizations, political analyst Mwambutsya Ndebesa said the KCCA’s shoes were still too big for her.

“I think Kisaka is a victim of circumstances. Without sufficient technical knowledge and experience in managing a large organization, she was assigned the job which was not even advertised,” Mr Ndebesa said.
“Getting the best people for these demanding jobs sometimes requires advertising to recruit the most competent and suitable candidates,” he added.

Despite heavy criticism over her competency for the job, Ms Kisaka partially outlined her achievements from the financial year (FY) 2020/2021 in a report dated July 10, 2023, submitted to the Kampala Municipal Affairs Minister, Ms Minsa Kabanda and the FY 2022/2023.
These included, among others, the reconstruction of 43.2 km of city streets with funds from the World Bank, the construction of 10.45 km of various municipal sewers in the respective districts of the capital, the expansion of street lighting by 535 lights and the rehabilitation of several street fronts with the help of police and Army.

Ms Kisaka pointed to these achievements as she sought a second term as KCCA boss. In the same report, she cited some challenges, including funding and low staffing levels. She subsequently got her job back after President Museveni directed her to renew her contract.
Prof Sabiti Makara, a lecturer in the Department of Governance and Public Administration at Kabale University in western Uganda, said Ugandans’ expectations remained high following the extension of their contract. However, Ms. Kisaka failed to free herself.

“You say you have done this and that but look at our Kampala today, there is not much to be proud of. “Roads and drainage remain poor,” Prof Makara said, adding: “Ugandans continue to complain.”
The fighting at KCCA was also partly to blame, said Prof. Makara.
“Every other time you hear about camps, ego conflicts, blame from leaders and so on. Such a reputation was bad for Dorothy. For Ugandans, she had failed to put her house in order,” Prof Makara said.