The Police Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) is set to probe the recent collapse of the Kiteezi landfill in Wakiso district, which killed over 35 people.
The disaster saw three top Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) officials dismissed in the public interest on Tuesday by President Yoweri Museveni to uphold accountability and maintain the highest standards of governance.
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The three officials, who were dismissed after a report by the Inspectorate of Government allegedly accused them of criminal negligence, are former executive director Dorothy Kisaka, her deputy Eng. David Luyimbazi and public health director Dr Daniel Okello.
“Fraud allegations against some KCCA officials, who are maintaining the landfill, will be part of our investigations, but the tragedy is well known now and clear,” one of the top CID officials told New Vision, yesterday.
There were allegations of misappropriation of some of the sh4.1b that is annually allocated towards the maintenance of the 36-acre landfill, which was the only landfill serving the whole of Kampala.
The CID director, Assistant Inspector General of Police Tom Magambo, declined to discuss the details of the probe when contacted, only saying: “Clearly, CID will take up this (Kiteezi) matter.”
DECISIVE RESPONSE
President Museveni dismissed the officials in what the State House press statement called “a decisive response” to the findings of the Inspector General of Government’s (IGG) report concerning the disaster.
According to a press statement, the report, which was filed by deputy IGG Anne Muhairwe, “clearly outlined the severe oversight and negligence” exhibited by the three officials.
State House also said, in light of these findings, the President called on the CID and other crime management agencies to thoroughly investigate the matter further, focusing on the angle of criminal negligence associated with the “distressful” collapse of the landfill.
To ensure a swift transition in leadership, the President directed the Public Service Commission to advertise the three positions and to appoint new officials within three months.
Additionally, the President tasked the minister for Kampala, Hajati Minsa Kabanda, with advising him on interim appointments for the crucial positions to ensure that operations within KCCA continue without disruption, until permanent replacements are in place.
LUKWAGO CITES FRAUD
On Tuesday, Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago levelled allegations of fraud against some KCCA officials.
“We never got satisfactory answers from these officials, because they claimed the grader would be hired daily at sh2.6m and each of the two excavators at sh2.5m. They also claimed that every year they would spend sh1.5b on murram they were using for purposes of grading the garbage, yet they would get it from the nearby land KCCA had bought. So, this is a fraud,” he alleged.
Data obtained by New Vision shows that KCCA spent sh4.18b last financial year (2023/24) to manage the Kiteezi landfill. Of this, sh2.57b was spent on paying for the landfill equipment and a total of sh2.54m was used to pay for an excavator daily, totalling sh930.38m by the end of the 365 days.
Another two excavators were reportedly hired during the rainy season and emergencies for 180 days for sh458.8m.
For 246 days, KCCA hired a steel-wheeled landfill compactor at sh3.1m per day, thereby spending sh762.6m.
Also, city authorities hired a bulldozer for 120 days to carry out waste compaction, bringing the total amount spent on this machine to sh312m.
The authorities also hired a water bowser to reduce dust and enhance the murram compaction for 30 days for sh36.6m. KCCA budgeted for 10 tonnes of murram per month, but this later accumulated to 30 tonnes, which were dumped once per quarter for sh1.56b.
Also, documents show that authorities budgeted for a leachate treatment plant and repair of motor vehicles for the aeration process at sh50m.
Leachate refers to liquid produced by precipitation coming in contact with waste and infiltrating through landfills, which seeps through the sides and bottoms of the landfill. KCCA, however, explained that only sh3b was budgeted annually for maintenance of Kiteezi landfill and that the extra sh1.18b included in last year’s budget was to cover arrears.
Daniel NuweAbine, the KCCA’s acting head of public and corporate affairs, recently said the allocation of sh4.18b for the maintenance of the dump site included money that went towards payment for murram, which is poured and graded at the site on a 24-hour basis daily.
“Instead of KCCA fuelling its vehicles and staging them at the dump site, there is a permanent grader that is fuelled at the site,” he explained.
The funds also help in the maintenance of the site, and also the treatment of the leachate and payment of workers, NuweAbine added.
However, Lukwago explained that the leachate treatment machines broke down and that leachate had been flowing directly into the environment.
He noted that the weighbridge, which measures the amount of garbage that enters the site, also broke down and advised that the sh4.1b be used to construct a recycling plant in Ddundu village, Mukono district.
The Lord Mayor also said during one of the meetings, they agreed to among other measures, crack the whip against particular individuals within KCCA, who are directly responsible for “this manmade catastrophe,” particularly regarding the alleged misappropriation of the sh4.1b.
Kampala generates between 2,500 and 3,000 tonnes of garbage daily, but the authority can only afford to collect between 39% and 40%.
Unlike Kampala, whose garbage collection is known, the amount of garbage generated in Wakiso district is unknown.
Lukwago said during an impromptu meeting held with state minister of disaster preparedness Lillian Aber, Luyimbazi and technical staff, they agreed that Kiteezi dumping site be decommissioned.
CALLS EMERGENCY MEETING
Lukwago yesterday called for an emergency KCCA stakeholders’ meeting today (Thursday) to discuss the transition, following the sacking of the three top technical officials.
“The meeting will be about the management of the transition, because right now, you cannot have formal structured meetings like that of the central executive committee, sicne we do not have an accounting officer.
The council at City Hall and division level cannot also sit, yet there are things to attend to,” he said.
Lukwago, therefore, said they need to make an adhoc structure arrangement to manage this transition, which involves different stakeholders.
“We now look disjointed. So, we need to have a common platform for the time being.
The other issue is garbage collection. We need to know who is responsible now, because an interim committee, which is managing garbage is headed by the dismissed Luyimbazi and deputised by Okello, who was also sacked,” he noted.
INTERIM LEADERSHIP
Kabanda told New Vision she had started implementing the Presidential directive, but the KCCA’s director of administration and human resource, Grace Akullo, is doing the work of executive director (ED) in the meantime.
“The human resource director is supposed to do the ED’s work, while the ED is away, but we are going to issue a press statement about this later in the day,” the minister said on the phone.
However, by press time, she had not yet issued the statement. New Vision also heard yesterday that Kisaka was on leave when she was sacked.
“The procedure is that the minister shall get the names for interim appointments and forward them to the appointing authority. So, the minister may take three or more names to the President,” a KCCA official told New Vision on condition of anonymity.
The source, however, hastened to add that it is quite likely that Akullo will be the acting ED, until the President finds Kisaka’s replacement.
LUYIMBAZI READY FOR PROBE
Meanwhile, Eng. Luyimbazi has said he is ready to be investigated over the Kiteezi incident.
Luyimbazi made the remarks yesterday morning as he returned to the office at City Hall to take his belongings.
“When you offer yourself to do this kind of work, you should always be ready to be subjected to any investigations.
I will offer myself to be investigated.”
“We have to face the reality; we needed resources to decommission Kiteezi, to stop dumping garbage there and to find a new dumping site. The resources were unavailable,” he added.
In a related development, dramatic scenes played out in some parts of Kampala as groups, who identified themselves as KCCA street cleaners, jubilated over the sacking of the top officials.
The group, majority of them women wearing gowns and carrying brooms, assembled at the independence monument behind the wall fence of the Sheraton Kampala Hotel, overlooking Speke Road and Nile Avenue.
They claimed that for several months they had worked without pay and accused the sacked officials of doing “nothing” to address their issues.
BETWEEN THE LINES
The President tasked Kabanda, with advising him on interim appointments for the crucial positions to ensure that operations within KCCA continue without disruption, until permanent replacements are in place.
