Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, accused by 17 KCCA councillors of abuse of office, incompetence, misconduct and misbehaviour, testified before the Justice Catherine Bamugemereire-led tribunal for the first time yesterday. Lukwago pleaded not guilty to all charges and said his efforts to serve Kampala are always frustrated by KCCA Executive Director Jennifer Semakula Musisi and the Minister for Kampala, Frank Tumwebaze. In attendance were the tribunal commissioners Alfred Oryem and Ocaya Lakidi. SIRAJE LUBWAMA and DERRICK KIYONGA recorded yesterday’s proceedings. Below are excerpts. Rutiba: My lord and honourable members of the tribunal, my name is Daniel Rutiba, (tribunal) lead counsel, assisted by Titus Kamya. I can see some of the petitioners; I don’t see both counsels for the petitioners and respondents as yet. The respondent is scheduled to defend himself against allegations brought by the petitioners. In light of the situation, I’m seeking for your direction. Katuntu: My lord, the lord mayor is on his way and I sincerely apologise because the tribunal was supposed to start at 10am but we got entangled in a traffic jam. In the premises, I pray that this matter be stood over for about 20 to 30 minutes. I will communicate when he arrives. Be that as it may, we tried to make sure that we supply some of the documents we’re going to rely on, and my team is still going through the process of numbering them. Bamugemereire: I am suggesting that you leave the process of numbering them to the tribunal. We shall reluctantly grant a short adjournment. Katuntu: I have no objection because when a judge says ‘I’m suggesting’, it is polite order. Oryem: How do you intend to conduct your case because we had talked about the witness statement to go on record? Katuntu: We intend to lead our witness in an oral testimony. Bamugemereire: Now we’re adjourning. (Tribunal members come back at 11am). Katuntu: May you please my lord, my name is Abdu Katuntu, a lead counsel for the respondent together with my other colleagues as captured by the tribunal. For the petitioners, the legal team is led by Kiwanuka Kiryowa. The respondent is in the tribunal and I do imagine all the petitioners. I would like to apologise for the slight late appearance of the respondent. We’re ready to proceed with the testimony of the respondent straight away. Bamugemereire: Proceed. Katuntu: As the witness takes the stand, I would like it to be noted that at the end of his testimony I will comment about the documents served on us. (Lukwago takes oath). For purposes of the record, may you tell the tribunal your particulars? Lukwago: I’m Lukwago Erias, lord mayor of Kampala, 43 years of age. I’m also an advocate with Lukwago and Company Advocates. I stay in Luba zone, Lubaga parish, Lubaga division in Kampala city. Katuntu: There is a petition before the tribunal making allegations about you by some councillors. Are you aware of it? Lukwago: Yes I am aware of it. Bamugemreire: The transcript team requests that the witness speaks through the microphones which are connected to our recording gadgets so that his evidence is captured. Lukwago: Because of the voluminous documents I will be opening, I can’t afford to hold the microphone. Bamugemereire: Provide him with a stand microphone if it is connected to the gadgets. Katuntu: How do you plead to the allegations levelled against you by some councillors? Bamugemereire: At this juncture, let me jump in and state the grounds. On 15th of May, 2013, some councillors petitioned the minister for Kampala as provided for under section 12 of KCCA Act 2010, on the following grounds: (a) abuse of office, (b) incompetence, (d) misconduct and misbehaviour and the minister set up a tribunal to investigate the allegations. There was a fourth allegation of failure to convene ordinary meetings but in view of the recent judgment by my learned brother of the High court (Justice Vincent Zehurikize), that ground was struck off. Katuntu: Do you understand the contents of the petition? Lukwago: Yes I do. Katuntu: How do you plead to the ground of abuse of office? Lukwago: It is a malicious allegation without any satire of truth, unfounded and only intended to malign me. Katuntu: How do you plead to the allegation of incompetence? Lukwago: It is a ridiculous allegation and unsustainable. Katuntu: How do you plead to the ground of misconduct and misbehaviour? Lukwago: Same averring. Katuntu: When were you sworn in as lord mayor? Lukwago: On May 20, 2011 at midday. Katuntu: Since you’re sworn in, have you heard a smooth transition as lord mayor? Lukwago: I have heard an earache star life, lots of political and administrative challenges, stumbling blocks along the way, insults and generally, I should say, my stay at City hall is extremely difficult. Katuntu: What do you mean by extremely difficult? Lukwago: To start with, the institution I’m charged with steering and turn it into a modern Kampala has not been fully established. At one point, in the course of presiding over meetings, I told the country at large that the institution is suffering from multiple organ failure. We’re faced with an institutional crisis and in some of the documents I will present before you; I described the situation at City hall as an institutional inertia which calls for the attention of everybody. Katuntu: It has been alleged in the tribunal that you don’t want development programmes in KCCA, is it true? Lukwago: That is absolutely false, I’m development-minded, if you looked at my volume two of my documents. Document number one, which is my inaugural speech, I presented quite a number of development programmes. I rolled out a programme I have for the transformation of the city and that is why I got 65 per cent of the total votes cast. Katuntu: Can you take this tribunal through what you call institutional inertia and why you refer to it as such? Lukwago: For this tribunal to reach a just finding on whether I’m competent or not, it has to examine the institution that I’m meant to steer. As we talk, the institution is in shambles. There are core organs that are fundamental and do not exist and this makes it difficult to execute my mandate. Number one, is the absence of the Metropolitan Physical Planning Authority. Katuntu: What is that? Lukwago: It is an organ which is supposed to be, in my opinion, the engine of development of Kampala because all that we’re supposed to do rotates around that body. I have always struggled since my investiture to ensure this body is put in place so that we kick off the development. I engaged related authorities especially the minister in charge of Kampala because he is supposed to nominate five names and forward them to cabinet. On this note, I would appreciate the efforts of Hon Muruli Mukasa, former Kampala minister, who at least communicated to me, proposing five names chaired by Eng Ian Kyeyune and sought for my views on April 10, 2012. We have had a number of ministers starting with Hon (Beatrice) Wabudeya, who only carried out one assignment – that of swearing in. When the president proposed his list of ministers, Wabudeya’s name was replaced by Hon Kabakumba Masiko, who didn’t do anything, before Muruli came in and now Hon Frank Tumwebaze. Katuntu: Did you reply to Hon Muruli’s letter. Lukwago: Yes, responded in writing to the minister on April 17, 2012 telling him that apart from Kyeyune whom I saw as a partisan politician, the rest, Prof William Bazayo, Eng Were Higenyi, Geoffrey Kamese and Dr Nathan were real technocrats. But I told the minister that it was his wish, I was ready to work with the entire team. Katuntu: Proceed with your inertia. Lukwago: There is a proposal written by World Bank consultants from Israel and South Africa on how to develop a new Kampala. As of now, we don’t have a valid structural plan. The essence of this voluminous World Bank document is meant to transform Kampala into a modern city. We also have KIIDP (Kampala Institutional and Infrastructure Development Project) programme, and I called my councillors to go to Imperial Royale hotel to discuss this project after it had just been handed to us. These experts realised that though Kampala had a natural environment, wetlands, lake shores around it, it had the worst beauty environment around it. Since that time, I’m sitting in my office with the document literally shading tears as I’m waiting for Eng Kyeyune and his team to develop the city. Katuntu: Evidence has been given that Kampala is being run on a central government Physical Planning Authority. Lukwago: That is absolutely a lie, falsehood intended to mislead this tribunal. The 1969 Physical Development Plan expired after a decade and it was last updated in 2004. Nobody should take the tribunal for a ride because we have no Development plan to guide development. Right now, all development being implemented in Kampala is not guided by any approved plan. Katuntu: Can you proceed? Lukwago: Apart from the Metropolitan Physical Development Authority, there is also the social economic development which we also don’t have. As we talk right now, the division urban councils are dead, non-functional with no single account to operate. It took them almost two years to get town clerks as accounting officers. The appointed town clerks are more or less like messengers. The authority act provides for the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) appointed by the lord mayor, approved by the authority and seconded by the minister. Katuntu: Did you appoint the PAC? Lukwago: I did appoint the PAC as required. Katuntu: Does the minster play any role in PAC’s approval? Lukwago: Under section 58, the minister is required to approve. I forwarded the names to him on June 25, 2012 and as we talk right now, PAC members have not been approved despite engaging the minister to exercise his authority several times to enable me do my work, to no avail. This applies to the metropolitan Physical Planning Authority. There is also the issue of the quarterly reports of the Contracts Committee as per section 66. Part of our work, councillors and I are to monitor authority work but this has made my work difficult. None of the councillors have seen these reports. Katuntu: Don’t labour yourself; the executive director said it was not published. It is alleged that you took advantage of a confidential management letter to the executive director from the Auditor General to malign the technical officers, what do you have to say? Lukwago: They accuse me of attacking the executive director on issues of accountability but we’re faced with frustrations of no audit system in the authority because there is no PAC. I raised the matter with some people who identified themselves as whistleblowers in the Auditor General’s office. This document dated January 28, 2012 was not confidential and I took it to Parliament for further investigations and the issue was handed to the Presidential Affairs committee and that of Local Government and Public Service. I did not utter anything beyond the documents’ contents. I am accountable to the people who elected me. In that document page 28, it is indicated that the transition team that came in as experts had no qualifications. For example Julius Kabugo had only worked in URA for six months after graduation. One S. Male, a driver to the executive director, was allocated a salary of Shs 1.8m and an allowance of Shs 5.2m which is 291 per cent increment according to the Auditor General, that made his monthly total package to be Shs 7m. These were issues of public concern. There is also the issue of double salary payment to this team when they were paid by KCCA, they were also still on the pay roll of URA. There was another issue of one Rukambuzi in that report, who in two months, had drawn Shs 106m from KCCA coffers when he was not among those to be paid. Katuntu: Is it your evidence that the two parliamentary committees acted on the document? Lukwago: Yes, and we’re still waiting for the outcome from the plenary. Katuntu: Other than Parliament, did you take this Auditor General’s document somewhere else, may be DP headquarters? (Laughter). Lukwago: No I handled it within the authority. Bamugemereire: Just to remind you, we shall be breaking off for lunch within the next five minutes. The idea is for the witness to finish his testimony today and be cross examined tomorrow. Can you adjust your plan so that whatever you want to state is presented today? Katuntu: This particular witness is the one in the dock accused. We propose to be accorded two full days and thereafter he is cross examined. We need two clear days with him that is today and tomorrow. Lukwago: My lord, tomorrow I’m required to host His highness the Kabaka at Mengo for the occasion of launching tree planting of the historical trees along Lubiri-Bulange road. It would be detrimental if I missed out. Kiryowa: We need to know how many respondents’ witnesses will be presented so that we plan our programme because we have been given a 3,000 page document which we need to go through. Bamugemereire: We shall handle that one in the afternoon. Today we shall conclude at 3:30pm and at the end of the day, the respondent will give us an idea of how many witnesses he intends to call. The respondent will also be given tomorrow to attend to His majesty’s function. Lukwago: There were still two issues on the inertia testimony. Bamugemereire: We shall give you 10 minutes to submit on them in the afternoon before proceeding to other issues. Let’s adjourn for lunch and be here by 2pm.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 13:11:10 +0000