Kisaka and Luyimbazi during happier times
HABARI DAILY I Kampala, Uganda I If only they had heeded to the advice of the experts, the over 35 people who perished after the disastrous landslide at Kiteezi, on the outskirts of Kampala, would be alive and kicking today.
Unfortunately, those lives cannot be recovered; not even after the Government has given each bereaved family sh5m as consolation money.
As Ugandans ponder lessons from the deadly garbage landslide, President Yoweri Museveni finally dropped the bombshell. By the power enshrined to him by the law of the land, he sacked the top Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) administrators.
Dorothy Kisaka, the now ex Executive Director, Engineer David Luyimbazi, the ex-Deputy Executive Director and Dr. Daniel Okello, the ex-Director of Public Health have become the sacrificial lamb to what I see as a myriad of hiccups they inherited from the previous Kampala city administrators.
In a decisive letter penned by none other than the President, he absolved himself of all the legal repercussions that would arise out of the untimely sackings by attributing his actions on the findings of the Inspector General of Government (IGG) report concerning the Kiteezi Landfill disaster.
He also defended his actions by basing his move on the constitutional authority under Article 172 (1) (a) of the 1995 Constitution, saying the 3 officials have been given the sack in the public interest due to significant evidence of criminal negligence.
But since the garbage landslide occurred at the Kiteezi landfill, Uganda has been facing a crisis of sorts.
Public figures who were best positioned to prevent the unfortunate incident before it occurred have been incriminating each other, before ultimately shifting the blame on the damn Government, also called Big Ben.
First was the Lord Mayor, Elias Lukwago, who said he saw the disaster coming several months ago after visiting this site. But did he take any action? Can the Lord Mayor of a major city on the African continent be so powerless that he could not order the evacuation of a disaster zone?
Lukwago, who was all over the airwaves after the disaster had happened, saying he had warned about the risks of overflowing waste from the site, described the landslide as a “national disaster.”
Then entered the political heads of Kampala city, the honorable minister, the minister of State for Kampala, Resident City Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners who all preferred to close their eyes and shut their mouths about the innocent blood of Ugandans that was lost at this deadly site, which was a few weeks ago a residential area, burying harbouring hundreds of residents.
Then finally entered the Ugandan President, who demanded to know who allowed people to live near such a “potentially hazardous and dangerous heap.”
He ordered payments to the victims’ families of sh5m ($1,300) for each fatality and sh1m for each injured person.
Then Big Ben finally came in and ordered all the people who live within the cordon to clear their houses because it’s dangerous. He promised to compensate the former residents. But the fact of the matter is that people desperately need a place to call home, and have become refugees in their own homeland.
This move rang a bell. It’s as if Big Ben prefers the garbage to his own people. Before the blame game is over and loss of innocent lives fades off the memory of the vulnerable Ugandans, Big Ben needs to come up with a solution to the over 2,500 tons of waste that are produced daily in Kampala city.
Only 1,200 tons are collected by garbage trucks. The rest is either incinerated or ends up in the city’s drainage systems.
This is another disaster waiting. Don’t say I didn’t warn you
