{UAH} HOW MINISTER FOR KAMPALA NAILED LORD MAYOR

MINISTER'S COMMUNICATION TO THE MEETING OF THE AUTHORITY CONVENED ON
25TH NOVEMBER 2013

Your Worship, the Lord Mayor or the legal representative Present, the

The Honorable Lord Councilors of the Kampala Capital City Authority
and all of you invited guests.

I take the opportunity this morning to welcome you all to this
special meeting. As you may all know i received a report from the
Tribunal, which i had set up months back to investigate the
allegations against the Lord Mayor of Kampala Capital City Authority
on Thursday 14th November 2013. Accordingly, i am compelled by Sec.
12(17) of the Kampala Capital City Act, 2010, to convene a meeting of
the Authority within 14 days after receipt of the said report.
Today's meeting therefore is in fulfillment of that legal
requirement.

The report of the tribunal was received in the open just like its
proceedings had been. I forwarded copies of the same report to the
Lord Mayor and all of you Honorable Councilors under cover of letter
dated 14th November 2013 and the same was duly received by the Lord
Mayor and his duly appointed advocates on the 14th November 2013.

While the law gives me 14 days to convene a meeting like this one and
also given the fact that i was at liberty to convene this meeting at
any date and working day of my choice, including doing so immediately
after the day of receipt of the tribunal report, i did not do so for
justifiable reasons. I gave all of you Councilors and The Lord Mayor a
period of one week to read this quite voluminous report not in a
haste, but of course conscious at the same time of the 14 day time
line set by the law. I also announced that this meeting would be
called in the second. This is what exactly happened.

I issued a notice dated 21st November 2013 inviting the Lord Mayor
and Councilors for this meeting pursuant to Sec.12 (17) of the
Kampala Capital City Act, 2010. It was therefore unfair to read and
hear news commentaries from some sections insinuating that this
meeting has been fast tracked to defeat some agendas of some people,
moreover unknown to me. If indeed i had intended to fast the meeting,
i would have convened it a day or two after receipt of the tribunal
report. Still that would have been within the 14 days. I wish
therefore to advise all of you to respect this otherwise legal process
and avoid unnecessary and irresponsible politicking.

Hon members allow me to address you on the genesis of the petition,
setting up of the tribunal and the release of the report including a
summary of its findings and conclusion. I am also obliged to do this
by law.

History:

On 17th May 2013, a petition was presented to my office by the
Councilors of Kampala Capital city Authority, seeking for the removal
of the Lord Mayor on grounds of misconduct, abuse of office and
incompetence. Pursuant to Sec. 12(5) of Kampala Capital City Act,
2010, I evaluated the petition in consultation with the Attorney
General through letters dated 20th May 2013 and 22nd May 2013 and
satisfied myself that there do exist grounds for constituting a
tribunal to investigate the allegations. By a letter dated 31st May
2013 I consulted with the Chief Justice on the suitability of the
persons proposed to constitute the tribunal. On the 4th June 2013 the
Chief Justice gave a no objection to the constitution of the tribunal
and the proposed members to sit on it. All this was in fulfillment of
the requirements for the process of the removal of The Lord Mayor or
Deputy Lord under section 12 of the KCCA act.

On the 5th of June 2013, the tribunal was constituted with the
following terms of reference:

(a) To determine its procedure, rules for its own guidance and
management of the proceedings
(b) To investigate the allegations against the Lord Mayor as contained
in the petition
(c) To determine whether there is a prima facie case for the removal
of the Lord Mayor
(d) To submit a report to the Minister responsible for Kampala

On the request of the tribunal and for various justifiable reasons
including; disruption of tribunal proceedings, court cases instituted
against the tribunal , volume of evidence and the need to ensure that
all the evidence required was made available to the tribunal, I was
compelled to extend the time within which the tribunal was to complete
its work.

It is important to emphasize and note that; my decision to appoint
the tribunal as well as its legality were all challenged
unsuccessfully in the High Court by the Lord Mayor. In most if not
all judgements court agreed with my decision and concluded that it was
within the law. All these legal contests Hon members,though tedious
and time consuming, helped to put our actions as well as the integrity
of the entire work of the tribunal to scrutiny and eventually
vindicated us. I would like to thank Justice Bamugemereire and her
team for leading the tribunal in a highly professional manner and
for having managed to steer clear of all deliberately orchestrated
provocations that were aimed at derailing the process.

The following is a summary of the tribunal findings.

That there were 12 (twelve) particulars which were pleaded in the
Petition of the Councilors and the Lord Mayor was exonerated with
regard to 4(four) particulars and was found culpable with regard to
8(eight) particulars as hereinafter stated.

The four particulars on which the Lord Mayor was exonerated were:

1. The Lord Mayor engaged in inciting the public in acts of violence,
resulting in the destruction of property; Engaging in insightful acts
which caused destruction of property, merchandise and death. (The
activity of Okugogola Kampala). (See page 89 of the report)

2. The Tribunal could not attribute the failure to convene ordinary
Authority meetings solely to incompetence of the Lord Mayor, although
he indeed exhibited a measure of incompetence. It concluded that a
prima facie case had not been made out against the Lord Mayor for his
failure to convene a meeting. (See pages 125-126 of the report).

3. The Lord Mayor was exonerated on the account of carrying out
persistent attacks on the technical staff and using abusive language;
It was the conclusion of the Tribunal that this allegation had not
been proved. See finding at Page 180 of the Report. In fact the
tribunal held thus; "The evidence was weak and open to many
interpretations …"

4. That the Petitioners failed to prove that the Lord Mayor disrupted
court proceedings and aided the escape of prisoners. (See page 181 of
the report)

The particulars under which the Lord Mayor was found culpable or
guilty were as follows;

ABUSE OF OFFICE:

1. The Lord Mayor incited the public against collection of City dues.

Finding:

The tribunal found that when the Lord Mayor chose to fight the
assessment and payment of trading licenses within Kampala City, he did
so arbitrarily and in abuse of his office (See page 79 of the report)

2. Appointment and removal, recall of councilors in Makerere and
Mulago Nursing School.

Finding:

The Tribunal found that when the Lord Mayor singularly appointed and
removed councilors from Universities and Tertiary Institutions, he
did so arbitrarily, to the prejudice of KCCA and in abuse of his
office. (See Pages 96-97 of the Report)

3. Failure to hold Special Meetings when petitioned by councilors.

Finding:

The tribunal found that a prima facie case has been made out that when
the Lord Mayor, on all material occasions, refused to convene the
petitioned meetings, or changed the agenda items unilaterally, or
without assigning reasons, or upon frivolous or vexatious reasons, as
the evidence on record shows, he did so arbitrarily to the prejudice
of KCCA and therefore in abuse of office. (See Pages 111-112 of the
Report)

INCOMPETENCE:

4. Failure to sign minutes:

Finding:
The tribunal found that a prima facie case has been made out to show
that the Lord Mayor was incompetent when he failed to sign Authority
minutes with the result that there is no binding record of the
Authority. (See Pages 146-147 of the Report)

5. Failure to recognize the importance of Standing Committees; and
6. Failure to have the mandate of Standing Committees renewed.

Finding:
The tribunal found that a prima facie case has been made out that the
Respondent failed to accord importance to the functions of standing
committees and to cause them to be reconstituted after they expired.
There is no plausible explanation for this failure other than
incompetence on his part. (See finding at Page 171 of the Report)

MISCONDUCT OR MISBEHAVIOR;

6. Misuse of Authority information

Finding:

The tribunal found that whilst the contents of the Management letter
could have raised concerns to the Lord Mayor he ought to have
addressed this matter through the proper channels. It was
irresponsible of the person of the Lord Mayor to disseminate the
contents of the Management letter beyond the confines of the
Authority. In his defense the Lord Mayor admitted that he knew he was
disseminating information from a management letter. Having carefully
considered the manner in which the Lord Mayor handled the management
letter as misconduct. (See Page 184 of the Report)

7. Failure to heed to technical advice;

Finding:

The Tribunal found that it is clear that the Respondent, the Lord
Mayor is answerable to the Minister for Kampala. The Respondent
himself admitted to this as did PW5 Sulaiman Kidandala. It is
therefore not clear why Ministerial Directives to the Lord Mayor, such
as Exhibit P5, were ignored. While the advice of the technical staff
is not necessarily binding on the Lord Mayor, he had a duty to
implement Ministerial Directives. The tribunal finds that a prima
facie case was made out that the Lord Mayor failed and/ or refused to
implement Ministerial Directives. This was misconduct on the part of
the Lord Mayor. (See Page. 191 of the Report)

Conclusion:

In conclusion the tribunal stated that it had distilled all the
evidence presented before it and distinguished the matters that had
been proved from those that had not. Matters that were not proved have
been clearly pointed out and the Respondent duly exonerated thereof.
Similarly allegations that were proved were also identified and
evaluated against a high standard of proof. Having carefully listened
to the arguments from both sides and considered all the evidence
presented in respect of the grounds of the petition raised by the
Councillors, the Tribunal established that there exists a prima facie
case, for the removal of the Lord Mayor from office

I would therefore like to inform you Honourable Councillors that under
the Kampala Capital City Act, 2010 you may decide to move a motion for
a resolution to remove the Lord Mayor from office. I would also like
to inform you that the Lord Mayor or his advocate or expert of his
choice shall be allowed to be heard in his defence to the motion moved
by any of the Authority Councillors.

Thank you very much.

For God and my Country.

Frank Tumwebaze, MP
MINISTER IN-CHARGE OF THE PRESIDENCY AND KAMPALA CAPITAL CITY