In a sarcastic tone, the RDC said, “You people who said the Honourable MP asked for sh4bn from sh1.3bn are outright liars!
There were murmurs of disapproval during a Mukono Municipality prayer service when Mukono Resident District Commissioner Hajat Fatuma Ndisaba Nabitaka watered down an earlier statement by Mukono Municipality member of parliament Betty Nambooze Bakireke, in which she (Nambooze) incriminated unnamed people, for allegedly saying she had coerced the Town Clerk to give her sh4bn out of the money intended for construction of the municipality administration block.
This was during a thanksgiving prayer service held at the Mayor’s Gardens and led by the Bishop for Mukono Diocese, Rt. Rev. Enos Kitto Kagodo, which coincided with the commissioning of the sh1.3bn administration block constructed by funds from local revenue generation amounting to sh500m with support from the central government to the tune of sh800m.
At the same function, the Minister for Local Government Raphael Magyezi who was the chief guest, also unveiled the municipality’s ten-year physical development plan.
In her speech, Nambooze had intimated that she had been cited in a fracas where she allegedly demanded the Town Clerk to give her some of the money intended for the work. The MP had said, “Some people said that I, together with the Mayor Erisa Mukasa Nkoyoyo, asked the TC to give us sh4bn to share between us, and it is good that the work has been completed”.
“Some of these statements when I hear them circulating I just laugh, imagine, if we had pocketed that money, would this work be standing? I take the honour to thank Nkoyoyo for allowing the technical people do their work without intercepting them, it’s the magic behind all this success,” she said.
However, Hajat Ndisaba did not take this sitting down and when her time to speak came, she wondered which people could be so myopic as to allege that the MP had asked for sh4bn from sh1.3bn which is the amount used to construct the building.
In a sarcastic tone, the RDC said, “You people who said the Honourable MP asked for sh4bn from sh1.3bn are outright liars! Ndisaba also ‘appreciated’ Nambooze for having signed a bill okaying Mukono to be incorporated into the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA), under which arrangement the Municipality received the World Bank funding for the construction of several kilometers of roads.
Ironically, Mukono residents are speaking of a legislator who is said to have vehemently opposed the idea of incorporating Mukono into the GKMA with allegations that if taken away to Kampala, Mukono would gradually disappear from the map, become insignificant and have all existing development taken over by Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA).
In his speech, Minister Magyezi thanked Mukono for coming out as the best executor of GKMA development plans, above other local governments including Kampala, Wakiso and Mpigi, and added that this is an incentive for attracting further funding.
Magyezi directed the RDC to follow up a community complaint that channels along Ntaawo section of the Nassuuti-Bbajjo road were left uncovered, with no walkways for pedestrians and poor access for premises lying on the stretch of the road.
“There is a lot of money injected in the project for the benefit of wanainchi and we cannot let it go to waste; I expect a report in one week,” he directed further.
Earlier in his homily, Bp Kagodo appealed to the minister to consider improving feeder roads like Kiyunga-Kasaayi-Namugongo and UCU-Bweyogere via the Kampala Industrial Park, saying they will offer a breathing space to the main Kampala-Jinja Highway which is currently overwhelmed by traffic congestion.
Minister Magyezi Appreciates Mukono Municipality for Excelling in GKMA Project
