Q&A: Two years of Dorothy Kisaka at KCCA— the wins, the misses, revitalizing a Covid-19 shaken Smart City strategy and why winning the trust of Kampala’s political leadership is key In August, Dorothy Kisaka, the Executive Director of the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), completed two years in office. In July 2022, CEO East Africa Magazine conducted an online poll- on Twitter and LinkedIn to gauge the perceptions of mainly Kampala residents on her performance. Overall, 4,251 participants (3,604 on Twitter and 647 on LinkedIn) and out of these, 48.3% positively rated her (17.9% of respondents rated her performance as great, while 30.4% rated her performance as average). 28.2% rated her performance as poor while 24.5% said they didn't know whether she had performed poorly or greatly. Following the poll, CEO East Africa Magazine’s Executive Editor, Muhereza Kyamutetera sought out the Executive Director’s views about the poll as well her own report card on her two years to date.

For starters, what are your overall comments on the results of the snap poll versus what in your view, the Authority has been able to implement and or achieve in the last two years? 

First, I want to thank the respondents for taking the time to rate the ED’s performance. It shows people are looking at what we do and are interested in our work. The good rating by respondents is appreciated and the fact that some poll respondents said ‘I don’t know’ about the performance of the ED shows a communication gap with our stakeholders. It allows us to communicate more strategically and connect with them. The poor performance comments link to work on infrastructure around the city. We have a well-set strategy we are unpacking this year for the community roads under the African Development Bank (AfDB) funding. Kampala is a city with approximately 4 million people during the day, spread over five divisions, 99 Parishes and over 800 villages. We serve all people in their diversity. The diverse perceptions reflect people’s preferences, but we gladly welcome the feedback, it is healthy and helps our leadership performance to improve. Overall, we need to communicate more with our stakeholders and let them know about the ongoing work.

What would you say has been the key achievement of the Authority, in the two years you have been in charge? 

When I assumed leadership at City Hall in August 2020, I made seven commitments, and the abridged version is as follows:

1. Leading from the front and by example
2. Fast track development and achieve the goals in the Strategic Plan.
3. Pursue a participatory approach in leadership
4. Build bridges that promote peace across the many stakeholders.
5. Serve all Kampala in its diversity
6. Promote the rich inherited values
7. Be good stewards of what has been entrusted to us

The commitments we made, touch on the two sides to leadership, the performance of tasks and the building of relationships. Am glad the feedback from the poll, recognizes this effort of establishing systems that enable participation and teamwork to minimize conflict. Our approach is intentional because the non-intangible impact of stable relationships is immeasurable. Leading from the front and being an example in engaging disgruntled stakeholders, using a participatory approach in finding solutions and building bridges with city dwellers in different strata are intentional approaches as a basis for effective service delivery. We have achieved this as our method of work.

We have two strong arms at KCCA— the political which handles policy through the council and the technical which handles the operations. We have established a governance structure and interactive forums to facilitate the relationship between the political and technical sides so that we can fast-track service delivery and achieve the goals in our strategic plan. There is a role for each office and each one should be accountable for its delivery. Both sides are delivering on their roles and the governance structures are vibrant and working effectively

We have worked with the political leadership to streamline policy formulation at City Hall. Policy is a bedrock in a city with so much diversity. We have completed the drafting of nine ordinances which are ready for the next stage of legislation. With the establishment of policies, we will be able to collect more revenue and streamline operations in markets, the public sector, garbage collection and outdoor advertising. This work is largely underground, done through consultations and standing committees but very instrumental to achieving visible results. KCCA serves Kampala through five service directorates Public Health and Environment, Education and Social Services, Physical Planning, Engineering and Technical Services and Gender Community Services and Production, which takes care of the needs of the Youth, Women, and vulnerable people in the city. Each is working to ensure the policies are in place

Secondly, we have addressed the decongestion of streets downtown. This is a stewardship role under the Smart City strategy. Smart City is a statement we are using to popularize our city decongestion campaign. The statement embraces our city aspirations as articulated in our KCCA vision and mission. The Covid-19 Pandemic caused a lapse in the observance of law-and-order downtown and the streets and pavements were congested with market produce of every kind including charcoal stoves and merchandise. All unplanned developments and activities that have in the past stifled business in the city due to challenges of movement and petty crime are being demolished. This campaign is still ongoing and being rolled out to the other Divisions. We set out as management to deal with this systematically, which involved several ongoing stakeholder engagements including police, and the political and technical leaders. The goal is to ensure we have law and order on the street, not vendors selling their merchandise on every verandah in the city. The results of this effort are phenomenal, they are visible and are ongoing. If you walk downtown today along Luwum Street, there is a big difference. You will also note that we didn’t have to use tear gas in this effort.

Thirdly to serve diverse people in the city, we have done major work to bring unemployed youth into the money economy, addressing the needs of the people ordinarily referred to as bayaye. Some have called it the quiet revolution that is impacting thousands who are now part of our streets work force cleaning drainages and sweeping city streets under the name Seven Hills. This contributes to reducing gangs and lawlessness in the city and channels our values of care, and inclusion, a city that works for all.

We have implemented the Presidential directive to bring the 16 markets that belong to the government under the leadership of KCCA. We have set in place a strategy for market leadership including the deliberate enacting of an ordinance that regulates markets. Markets are a potential source of conflict because of the numbers and diverse political views that interact there.

Under the public transport sector, we are in the final stages of redesigning the old taxi park area to modernize it while taking care of the interest of the current users and developers who had purchased the perimeter land. These engagements are numerous but necessary. We have reorganized the taxi parking so that they are grouped according to the areas they serve. We have re-established the collection of Park User fees which has raised our revenue collection significantly and this last financial year we hit a 94% collection. Am very proud of our teams.

We have completed construction of over a total of 35 kilometres of roads and these include Lukuli Road, Gava Road in Makindye Division, Kisaasi Junction, Factory Lane and Nakawa Ntinda in Nakawa Division, John Babiha Road/Acacia Avenue, Windsor Crescent in Kampala Central Division. Kabuusu Kitebi Lweza, Katale Ngobe, Gyaviira in Lubaga Division. We have completed the rehabilitation of a total of over 50kms City Roads and we continue to undertake routine maintenance of the City network. We Commenced reconstruction of Several drainage improvement projects in the city and the following are still ongoing.

We have promoted City Tourism Development with financial support from Uganda Wildlife Authority, and unveiled the Gorilla and Impala bronze wildlife monument products along Kimathi Avenue and ten wildlife sculptures along Kiira Road also nicknamed “Wildlife Street”. Completed the construction of the Kampala City Tourist Information Centre located at the Sheraton Hotel, a one-stop tourist centre the first of its kind in Uganda. Kampala is being positioned as a tourist destination

We have managed a delicate season of the covid pandemic and lockdown in the city which has marked the most part of our leadership, staff transitions and staffing gaps and continue working with the established commissions to fill these gaps and consistently improve staff welfare. We work with a dynamic council with very high expectations from the technical and we continue to navigate this relationship to deliver jointly

The most recent work is the Parish Development Model, the change-maker strategy for social-economic transformation that the government has introduced. KCCA has set up the Parish Development Committees, completed the enterprise identification, and SACCO formation and recently done the Ministerial sensitization drive to inform the Kampala people about PDM. The momentum is great, and we are on course as required by the law.

In line with the above, upon your assuming office, the KCCA launched a strategic plan for the City. Where are we with this plan and what percentage has been achieved to date of the plan?

The preparation of the Kampala City Strategic Plan FY 2020/21 – 2024/25 was launched on the 29^th of September 2020. The Plan has six thematic areas prioritized along the National Development Plan (NDP) III programs to guide the city development agenda over the five-year planning horizon and these were:

1. City Economic Growth
2. KCCA Governance and Citizens Engagement
3. Quality of Life
4. City Resilience
5. Resource mobilization and management
6. Strengthen institutional capacity and development

Along these 6 key thematic areas, there have been key achievements, notably:

• City Roads Infrastructure improvement

We are in the advanced stages of implementing the Kampala Roads Rehabilitation Project financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB). Our road network is largely old and needs an overhaul and this is going to be done because of the loan we have received from the African Development Bank. The project targets to reconstruct and upgrade a total of 69.7KM of roads, 5km of associated drainages, 134Km of pedestrian walkways and signalize 22 junctions. The focus is on key arterial roads which link traffic to key exit routes as well as improving roads in industrial areas.

• Creation of workspaces and market development

Under this deliverable, a number of markets have been completed and or in the process of completion, namely:  

1. Kasubi Market — we completed the construction of the market. The market was launched in August 2020 by His excellency the President and a total of 1,200 vendors have been relocated to the new facility
2. Kitintale Market— we have completed over 50% completion of civil works and the market facility is expected to be completed in FY 2022/23.
3. Busega Market— we have completed over 85% completion of civil works and the market facility is expected to be completed in FY 2022/23.
4. We are also in the process of purchasing land for the vendors removed from the streets

• City Education

We reopened the City Education institutions after two years of closure due to the Covid 19 pandemic, admitting back 75,000 learners in the Government-owned Primary and Secondary schools only. We have constructed a total of 13 new classrooms at Kitebi S.S and renovated the school administration block with B.O.G funding. We completed the removal of asbestos, expansion and construction of 24 classrooms at Kololo S.S. We renovated a total of 27 classrooms; 3 blocks of 14 classrooms at Naguru Katali Primary School with Government funding, 7 classrooms at St James Bbiina Primary School, 3 classrooms at Mbuya C.O.U Primary School with funding from NSSF, 3 classrooms at Kampala School for the Physically Handicapped with support from the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), a total of 135 stances of waterborne toilets, 9 incinerators and 34 WashAlots (prefabricated group washing facilities) for Schools were constructed or renovated in 9 schools.

• Solid Waste Collection and Management

KCCA through the engagement of three private companies; Nabugabo Updeal Joint Venture, Kampala Solid Waste Management Consortium and Homeklin under a public-private partnership (PPP) has continued to collect, transport and dispose of municipal waste to the Kiteezi landfill. Kampala generates 2,000 tons of garbage per day and as of June 2022, KCCA and its Concessionaires operated at a collection efficiency of about 56% (1,400 tons per day). Our goal is to achieve 100% solid waste collection efficiency.

• Water, Sanitation & Hygiene

KCCA in partnership with GIZ- Sanitation for the Millions project has supported the construction of water and sanitation facilities such as water-borne toilets, Millions of Clean Hands washing stations, and water harvesting tanks in targeted religious institutions and Private Not-for-Profit(PNFP) institutions. We have installed 110 WashaAlots in 43 KCCA Government-Aided primary schools (Central -9 schools; Makindye 8 schools; Rubaga-10 schools; Nakawa-7 schools; Kawempe-9 schools) in order to increase access to safe water points at the targeted schools.

• Resource mobilization and management

For FY 2020/21 KCCA managed to collect a total of UGX 80.32 bn (83%) against the annual target of UGX 99 billion. For FY 2021/22 KCCA managed to collect a total of UGX 93.25 bn (94%) against the annual target of UGX 99 billion.

We commenced the implementation of the Program on integrated local finances for sustainable urban development, PIFUD which aims to support GKMA municipalities in the areas of own resource revenue mobilization, climate change responses and innovative approaches to sustainable urban development.

We launched the Smart Permit online system through which property developers can submit and get their building plans approved online. 

• People management

We carried out a KCCA Staff verification exercise to update our Human resource records and commence the process of regularizing staff. We initiated several measures aimed at improving staff welfare including the provision of lunch and medical care schemes.

What are some of the challenges faced by KCCA on this uphill task? 

Some of the major challenges over the past two years have included: the Covid -19 Pandemic and the lockdown and the impact it has had on the delivery of services; contractors asked for an extension of time and that slowed down delivery. The ageing road network and the absence of a public (mass) transport system. The city roads are narrow and dilapidated and this has led to the increase of boda bodas which is an unsustainable mode of transport as it increases traffic congestion in the City. Solid waste management and disposal continue to be a challenge in the City especially due to the poor waste disposal culture.

We have the perennial problem of inadequate financing for key infrastructure and city maintenance programs; roads, lighting, sanitation and others. Unexpected delays in the staff restructuring process, and delays in the commencement of key infrastructure projects because of the bureaucratic approvals.

To what extent did the covid-19 pandemic have on the implementation of your strategy?

There were direct and indirect effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and these include:  

• Loss of life, internally some of our staff died due to the pandemic
• Between March – December 2020, KCCA revenue collections dropped almost by 60% which affected financing service delivery in the City. Our strategic plan goals have been affected significantly because of the two years of the Pandemic.
• Service delivery slowed down in some areas during the complete shutdown, we had staff working at only 20% capacity.
• The congestion of the streets downtown with the merchandise strewn all over the streets with people looking for customers and running away from inside the markets and shops, is being addressed
• Blocked sewage systems because of non-use of the system during the lockdown and the attendant problems arising from that.

However, Kampala City in the last 8 months has bounced back and we are not lamenting but salvaging what we can and implementing with the support of government funding and the development partners

Lastly, moving forward, what should we expect to see over the remaining life of the strategic plan?

Going forward we shall focus on the implementation of the Parish Development Model in all the 99 City Parishes/wards. I call them, 99 opportunities for the Smart City for all our service delivery goals.  The PDM is going to be a game-changer in the social and economic transformation of the city and service delivery across the five Divisions of Kampala. We are launching the Kampala Road Rehabilitation Project financed by the African Development Bank in which we are going to construct a total of 69.7KM of roads, 5km of associated drainages, 134Km of pedestrian walkways and signalize 22 junctions. Once the approvals by the government are done, we will launch that this year.

We are going to increase City lighting and our target is to install a total of 20,000 streetlights over the next 2 years versus a total need of 45,000 streetlights. A solid waste management value chain is a pressing issue and this is being dealt with, through the purchase of garbage trucks, implementing recycling and instilling a healthy culture of solid waste disposal in the city. 

We are launching the Kampala Smart City Expo a platform for better communication with citizens to introduce our various technologies available at KCCA and harness the interconnectivity between technology, infrastructure and people as core pillars of a smart city. With the Covid 19 Pandemic behind us, we are moving to implement the laws regarding noise pollution, protecting green zones, disposal of garbage and outdoor advertising. All these will enhance our philosophy of a smart city.