KAMPALA – The new Minister for Kampala, Ms Betty Amongi, has said the current budgetary allocation by the government to Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) cannot enable them to provide adequate services in the city.
Appearing before Parliament’s Presidential Affairs Committee on Wednesday, January 22, 2020, Ms Amongi said the Shs285 billion allocated to KCCA for the coming financial year 2020/2021 is just a drop in the ocean given the many sectoral services KCCA has to provide.
For instance, the minister said KCCA needs Shs23.5 billion for roads maintenance and another Shs47 billion for drainage infrastructure in the city. She noted that KCCA also needs Shillings 20 billion for decommissioning of Kiteezi landfill which has exceeded its design capacity. She says that this funding gap relates to decommissioning costs as KCCA prepares to move to the new site at Dundu.
Ms Amongi added that after decommissioning, the new Dundu site will require 80 billion shillings to secure right of way-including payment of people whose land will be affected, construction of the primary infrastructure and provision of utility services.
The minister added that 17 activities worth Shillings 302.47 billion planned for implementation in the coming financial year have no funding. She appealed to the committee to push for an additional budget for at least 5 of the unfunded activities out of the 17 so that KCCA is able to change the face of the city ahead of the 2021 general elections.
She also said that there is need for 25 billion shillings for a total of 65 (16-tonnage) trucks in order to effectively collect solid waste in Kampala, 139 billion for the Kampala Institutional and Infrastructure Development Project- KIIDP II and 7.87 billion to operationalize the recently amended KCCA Act.
Ms Jessica Ababiku, the Chairperson of Parliament’s Presidential Affairs Committee, said that her committee was going to write a report making recommendations to parliament about the unfunded activities.
KCCA funding has been reducing over the years, leading to the deterioration of services.
