| MUKONO | KYAGGWE TV | Residents from the four villages covered by the over 136 acres of land which Kampala Capital City Authority purchased in order to shift the Kiteezi garbage landfill together with their leaders have protested the move saying they are not ready to welcome Kampala’s rubbish problems.
The locals that raised their grievances on Sunday were joined by their leaders who included; the village chairpersons, the Ddundu parish chairperson, Alex Lubwama, Kyampisi sub-county vice chairperson Ismail Mwanjaazi and the Mukono North Member of Parliament, Abdallah Kiwanuka Mulimamayuuni.
Ddundu village vice chairperson, Emmanuel Kuteesa said that the affected villages include; Buntaba, Kiryammuli, Ddundu and Kiwogo-Kyabakadde.
Kuteesa said that though they started fighting this move way back, the Kampala Lord Mayor Elias Lukwago’s pronouncement on Saturday that they have a ready place at Ddundu in Mukono district to relocate the garbage landfill from awoken them up to let the latter know that the place which KCCA bought without revealing their intention was gazetted for human settlement but not for dumping garbage.
“We join our fellows from Kiteezi who lost their loved ones in the garbage landfill slide that covered and killed over 20 of them. If KCCA is stranded with where to relocate the affected families from, we allow the authority to allocate part of this land to those people but not for garbage,” he advised.
Daniel Lutaaya who is also a resident said that by relocating the affected families to Ddundu will allow KCCA to get enough space to continue using Kiteezi landfill for its original purpose instead of abandoning it after this catastrophe.
“I challenge KCCA to consider using modern technology to recycle the garbage into useful products like manure, fuel, jewels, shopping bags, among others,” Lutaaya said.
Tereeza Nabakooza, a resident said that before KCCA bought this land, there are locals who had been there for decades and the leaders did not reveal their plans for the purchased place and that upon learning about the idea of using it as a garbage collection site from Kampala, they started challenging it.
“We are only unfortunate that our pleas have been under looked by KCCA right from the tenure of the former Executive Director, Jennifer Musisi,” Nabakooza said.
At her village, Nabakooza said they have a water source which supplies over three villages more especially during the prolonged drought when other sources get dry.
“We are however optimistic that if KCCA starts dumping its garbage here, the water will become contaminated,” she said.
Kiteezi landfill is said to have started in 1996 and it has been a sole dumping site for all the garbage collected from the five divisions of Kampala city.
Francis Ntagaza, one of the residents at Ddundu village said that they asked KCCA to let the locals mobilize funds and buy off its share of land in their locality so that they can look for another suitable place where they will be in position to dump their garbage.
To be on a safe side, Ntagazi said that they opened up a lawsuit at Mukono High Court where they are challenging both KCCA and NEMA for intending to intervene with their peaceful stay in a residential area as they open up a garbage dumping site in the locality.
“Some of us relocated from the busy places of Kampala to this side where we thought we would be safe without any disturbance. Other people shifted from Kiteezi just as a result of the garbage which had turned the environment unfriendly for human stay, therefore, we do not wish to shift again,” he said.
The area MP, Mulimamayuuni said they cannot allow KCCA to antagonize the locals’ peaceful stay by dumping garbage into them. Let them take that development in another area apart from Mukono district because we are not ready to welcome it.
Other dignitaries who reside in Ddundu parish who are also not welcoming the KCCA’s garbage landfill include; the former Vice President, Dr. Specioza Wandera Kazibwe, the bishop of Kampala, Hanington Mutebi, among others.
