Lord Councilors at Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and Divisional authorities have demanded Parliament to insert a clause in the KCCA Bill indicating the qualifications of a Councilor seeking leadership at both KCCA and divisional level.
Appearing before the Presidential Affairs Committee chaired by Jessica Ababiku, the Adjuman district woman MP on Thursday, the Lord Councilors led by the Councilor for Kyambogo University Bruhan Byaruhanga said that they need qualifications on Councilors for easy transaction of the Authority work.
The Councilors said that the qualifications of the Lord Councilors at KCCA should be A-Level and O-Level for Divisional Councilors to give the Lord Mayor high quality leaders in which to pick his or her Deputy Mayor without being limited by their education level.
The Councilor for Kampala Central, Fatumah Nsereko told the Committee that sometimes Councilors with low education dodge budget debates at the Authority meetings because they don’t know English and some ask to give their contribution in Luganda yet Kampala is the face of Uganda.
She noted that some times the councilors who know English are embarrassed by some Councilors who do not know English. She gave an example of a councilor who heads Education Committee, but uses Luganda to drive the point home.
The KCCA bill is before the Presidential Affairs Committee for scrutiny.
Mawogola South Member of Parliament, Joseph Sekabito said that this is a good initiative by the Lord Councilors to give a difference between District Councilors and Capital City councilors.
The Lord Councilors noted that currently, there are Councilors at Authority and Divisions with less than O-Level qualification.
Other Committee Members questioned whether the four professional Councilors at KCCA are required since the authority has technical officers who can interpret to the Councilors the technical issues, which the Councilors who attended the meeting preferred not answer for conflict of interest since it was pointing at some of their fellow councilors.
The current four professional Councilors at KCCA include Frank Kanduho, representing the Uganda Law Society, Verna Mwinganisa Mbabazi (Uganda Society of Architects), Eng Karuma Kagyina (Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers) and Dr Denson Nyabwana ( Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners’ Association). These were elected to represent professional bodies as mandated by the KCCA Act.
