Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA councilors have blocked the allocation of Shillings 220 million to the Kampala Minister. The money had been earmarked as “facilitation for Kampala Minister” for the 2019/2020 financial year budget.
Beti Olive Kamya and Benny Namugwanya Bugembe are the current Kampala and Metropolitan Affairs Minister and State minister respectively.
This is the first time that the minister’s facilitation was being included in the KCCA budget. However, Councilors rejected the proposal arguing that the minister is catered for under the President’s office.
“The minister gets her money from president’s office. We rejected money to facilitate her because that would be double pay. The ministry can’t be catered for from two sources,” Nakawa Councilor, Moses Mugisha Okwera told Uganda Radio Network.
The Makerere University Councilor, Doreen Nyanjura argued that letting Kamya draw money from KCCA and president’s office would be absolute theft.
“As people who believe in good governance, we couldn’t accept that budget. As a person, I don’t even see the role of minister in charge of Kampala. It is wastage of tax payers’ money. It is wrong to have that ministry,” she argued.
Councilors directed the Chairperson of Legal Affairs Authority Committee, Allan Atuhaire where the vote had been brought for approval to allocate the money to other critical areas in the sector budget.
The Kampala Lord Mayor, Erias Lukwago who has been at loggerheads with Kamya over the political leadership of the city has on several occasions questioned how funds allocated to the Kampala Ministry are spent.
He has been claiming that Kamya uses the money to bribe people in Kampala. Lukwago says Kamya was allocated Shillings 7.9 billion last year that she has been moving around with to bribe lower level politicians.