A decade-old scandal has resurfaced at the heart of the capital city administration, the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), raising serious alarms about systemic corruption and a chronic lack of accountability. During a fiery session of the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises (COSASE), Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago made a shocking revelation: that former KCCA staff allegedly stole a brand-new weighbridge from the Kiteezi landfill in 2012 and sold it to Rwanda.
This bombshell accusation has ignited a fresh parliamentary probe into KCCA’s financial management and its long history of alleged misconduct.
The revelation emerged on Tuesday as COSASE was scrutinising the Auditor General’s December 2024 report, which exposed a glaring inefficiency in KCCA’s waste management.
The report, by the AG Edward Akol, found that KCCA had spent over Shs3.7 billion on hiring garbage collection equipment, a figure just shy of the Shs4.5 billion it would have spent to purchase its own.
When Public Accounts Committee Chairperson Medard Sseggona questioned why KCCA hadn’t simply bought the equipment, Lukwago dismissed the idea with a chilling account of past corruption.
“I have the Auditor General’s 2011/2012 report, which indicated that a weighbridge at Kiteezi was stolen by KCCA officials and taken to Rwanda,” Lukwago stated. “We discussed this internally… asking how we can combat such thuggery. The issue with hiring or purchasing equipment is protection; purchased equipment could be sold off, as it happened with these weighbridges,” he added.
Stalled Investigations and Lost Accountability
The Auditor General’s 2012 memorandum, which Lukwago cited, documented that the brand-new weighbridge was replaced with an old, dysfunctional one. To date, no functional weighbridge exists at Kiteezi to measure garbage quantities, and all recovery efforts for the stolen equipment have stalled for over a decade.
When pressed for answers on the investigation, KCCA’s Director of Legal Services, Frank Rusa, provided a response that only fueled the frustration of the committee.
“Last year… the Lord Mayor raised the issue of the weighbridges stolen 13 years ago… I committed to following up with the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID). The investigation is ongoing, but I don’t have the latest update,” Rusa said.
But the lack of progress over such a long period has led many to question KCCA’s commitment to holding its officials accountable.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Misconduct?
This latest scandal adds to a troubling history of controversies that have plagued KCCA and its officials. Over the years, the city authority has faced numerous allegations of procurement irregularities, with reports of inflated contracts and shoddy work on public projects.
There have also been long-standing disputes and allegations of impropriety regarding the management of city markets and the procurement of public infrastructure, such as street lighting and inflated amounts for road construction.
The fact that a brand-new, vital piece of public infrastructure could be stolen and its investigation left in limbo for over a decade points to a deep-seated institutional vulnerability to corruption.
In reply to Rusa’s claims, Workers’ MP Charles Bakkabulindi captured the committee’s attention, demanding, “The Lord Mayor says equipment will be stolen again, and you know the people who took the weighbridges to Rwanda. Why not mention their names so we can move forward?”
While Lukwago clarified that naming individuals was beyond his mandate, the sentiment was clear: the public and Parliament are tired of empty promises and the failure to prosecute officials implicated in financial crimes.
In a strong show of resolve, MP Sseggona vowed to use the power of COSASE to relentlessly pursue the matter, interrogating KCCA officials until those responsible for the crime are brought to book, because on average, the price of a weighbridge in Uganda ranges from Shs150,000,000 to Shs400,000,000, depending on the make and installation features.
This ongoing parliamentary probe now stands as a pivotal moment for KCCA, where officials must finally provide concrete answers and demonstrate a commitment to accountability and transparency, or risk having the scandal further erode public trust and cripple the city’s ability to deliver essential services.
Our efforts to reach KCCA for an official comment about this matter were futile by press time, as calls to their offices remained unanswered.