In September 2018, Jennifer Musisi, the then Executive Director, KCCA at Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) unexpectedly announced resignation from the fatty job.
It was shocking because President Yoweri Museveni had just renewed her four-year contract, having first been first appointed in that position in 2011.
Consequently, Eng. Andrew Kitaka (in featured photo) was named the Acting Executive Director until his contract expired recently.
During this period, a lot of things have happened at City Hall, with massive exodus of senior staff being the key highlight.
However, this (staff exodus) has just been the tip of the iceberg, with insiders revealing that there is war within the Authority for the Executive Director position.
While Kitaka thought he would be substantive ED by now, the entry of KCCA Physical Planning Director, Moses Atwine into the picture of potential Musisi replacement has sent shockwaves to Kitaka’s camp.
According to insiders, there are divisions within KCCA.
Against the above background, it’s understood that there’s a plot to push Atwine out of KCCA through the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) that is chaired by Mubarak Munyagwa Sserunga.
As per the plot, Munyagwa, is supposed to push for Atwine’s sacking by the Public Service Commission through a parliamentary recommendation using his COSASE.
Background
It’s worth remembering that while meeting the Public Service Commission (PSC) on Wednesday August 28, 2019, Munyagwa in his capacity as COSASE Chairperson recommended that the Public Service Commission (PSC) ‘immediately’ sacks the KCCA Physical Planning Director Moses Atwine.
The recommendation came as Munyagwa sought an update from PSC Permanent Secretary John Geoffrey Mbabazi on what action his boss, Justice Ralph Ochan had taken as regards terminating Atwine’s contract.
It should be noted that following a grueling probe that has seen COSASE depict Atwine as a man erroneously holding his office at City Hall without proper qualifications, Munyagwa on July 24, 2019 ordered PSC boss Ochan to knife Atwine over lack of requisite academic qualifications. He then gave Ochan — who was appearing before the probe as a witness against Atwine — two weeks within which to implement the directive.
Ironically, the other witness that COSASE lined up against Atwine that day was his overall supervisor, the Acting Executive Director, Eng. Andrew Kitaka.
In his submission however, Kitaka shockingly pinned Atwine, telling the COSASE panel that Atwine was erroneously appointed to his position.
The ED’s utterances sent tongues of many observers wagging, with many opining that the pinning was born out of bad blood between the two KCCA bosses.
As a result, some observers reasoned that as an Acting Accounting Officer who also supervises Atwine at KCCA, Kitaka shot himself in the foot by projecting the person he supervises as not fit for the job yet there’s no evidence whatsoever to suggest that he has ever complained about his shortcomings — if any — at any one time.
Others reasoned that as KCCA institutional head, Kitaka has the moral obligation to protect his junior colleague instead of casting him in the jaws of his tormentors, if there were no hidden agendas.
This site has leant from highly placed sources within COSASE that this submission has since sharply divided the Committee, with particular concern being raised as to why it is only Atwine who has been cast in the eye of the COSASE storm yet KCCA is teeming with many directors and senior staff who are occupying their jobs by virtue of their second or third degrees.
A perusal through the employee records show that apart from Atwine, other directors who are holding their current jobs by virtue of their second or third degrees include: Sam Serunkuuma (his contract expired), the former substantive Director Revenue Collection (DRC), Dr. Daniel Ayen Okello, the Director Public Health and Environment and Caleb Mugisha, the acting Director Legal Affairs but also substantive manager Litigation Affairs. Mugisha got the latter job after quickly rising two steps in the KCCA hierarchy above the more experienced Dr. Michael Mukwana, a Phd holder who was also a former State Attorney but is still locked at the level of a mere supervisor. The other is Richard Lule, the current Director Human Resource.
Details show that while Serunkuuma studied Social Sciences at bachelor’s degree level, he was appointed DRC on the basis of his second degree, a Master’s in Business Administration.
Dr. Ayen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Dentistry while Lule is a graduate teacher but got his job courtesy of his Master’s of Psychology and Organizational Development degree.
Why Only Atwine?
The above information shows that singling out Atwine for crucifixion points to a secret mission by someone targeting to clear him out of the way for some hidden agenda.
While appearing before COSASE recently, PSC boss Justice Ochan revealed that having assessed Atwine’s highly credible qualifications at post-bachelor’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning, the commission waived the requirement for him to hold a bachelor’s degree in Physical Planning. He was then initially head-hunted to be part of the task force during KCCA’s transition period and later hired as KCCA’s Director for Physical Planning.
This site understands that Moses Atwine is a graduate of Spatial Planning tenable at Dortmund University code named Spatial Planning for Regions in Growing Economies (SPRING). He also holds a shared Master of Science degree in Urban and Regional Development Planning from Dortmund University in Germany and Kumasi University of Science and Technology (KUST) Ghana. He is also a fully registered member of the International Institute of Development Planners.
It is said that within the corridors of City Hall, Atwine is famed for his incorruptible nature and efficiency in operation.
It is on the backdrop of intelligence reports about such diligent track record that his name has persistently rang among the candidates being considered for appointment as substantive Executive Director to replace Jennifer Musisi right before Kitaka’s short acting ED tenure elapsed.
Unfortunately for him, among his co-contenders is Eng. Andrew Kitaka whose six-months tenure as acting ED expired on June 20, 2019 as per Public Service Standing Orders. This followed his appointment last December by Kampala Minister Beti Olive Namisango Kamya.
Given that Atwine’s name had never been mired in any sort of corruption scandal or questions pertaining to his competence, it is ironic that queries over his academic qualifications only surfaced after the expiry of Eng. Kitaka’s tenure as Acting ED.
Since then, a ferocious media campaign to cast him as a liability to Ugandans has been on. Sources say Kitaka is thickly pursuing the full ED post and has for eight months desperately sought to meet the appointing authority in vain. This thus places Atwine — a largely non-political figure — as kitaka’s main threat in the silent KCCA ED race.
Highly placed security sources intimated to us that Kitaka’s failure to meet the president is premised on intelligence reports that have persistently linked him to opposition ranks within the country.
“For a long time there has been talk that KCCA was taken over by the opposition and this is supported by the fact that the minister is a reformed president of the Uganda Federal Alliance while the Lord Mayor is a DP strongman. It is thus imperative that a non-political actor or at least an NRM-leaning person takes over the technical wing to avoid politicking like there was before Musisi joined City Hall,” a source said.
Munyagwa-Kitaka Meet
Sources say that Eng. Kitaka was dealt a huge blow after a picture of him holed up in a secret (tea) meeting with FDC’s Munyagwa emerged.
Records show that the secret meeting happened at one of the popular hotels along Yusuf Lule road in the evening of Wednesday August 21, 2019. But while a meeting of two eminent adults is really no cause for fuss, the timing and manner of the Munyagwa-Kitaka rendezvous raises several questions.
Firstly, that the meeting is timed within the time frame of the ongoing COSASE probe where Munyagwa is both Atwine’s accuser and judge while Kitaka is his prime witness.
This thus raises ethical issues bordering on collusion, influence peddling and conflict of interest on Munyagwa’s side, thus putting the credibility and fairness by the entire COSASE towards Atwine in serious question.
It has emerged that exactly a week after the August 21 meeting between Kitaka and Munyagwa, the latter shocked fellow COSASE members when he acted very strangely towards the Public Service Commission team that was led by their PS John Geoffrey Mbabazi to answer routine audit queries from the Auditor General’s report before COSASE.
However, immediately after being welcomed, Munyagwa quickly deviated from the agenda and jumped straight onto the Atwine matter, asking the PS about his boss’s decision on Atwine.
Before Mbabazi could answer, Munyagwa drove his (PSC) team away, saying he will only hear from them once Atwine is sacked.
This left members questioning why Munyagwa could frustrate a matter as important as audit queries to pursue the sacking of one man.
