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Some time in March last year, President Museveni met all groups of cleaners, sweepers and other casual laborers in Kampala. The event was at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds from where the President offered his appreciation to especially groups which had been cleaning the City and desilting the drainage channels during the COVID lockdown.
There had also been fights among rival groups. Those who had been at the cleaning job longer feared that the new guys, initially coming in as volunteers, wanted to displace them and take their jobs. The President corroborated what the ED Dorothy Kisaka had said prior at that same function, by assuring them no one was going to be forced out of the cleaning job.
Gen Museveni coiled right there and came up with the term “Bonna Bakole” which was consistent with his desire to have all government interventions be as inclusive as possible. Under the Bonna Bakole directive that was verbally issued right there at Kololo, the President required the Finance Ministry to avail KCCA with the additional funds to enable the integration of thousands of casual laborers and cleaners to work with KCCA as sweepers.
The President saw this as an opportunity to dissuade would-be idlers and hard-core criminals from criminal practices while turning them into productive citizens. The gathering at Kololo, largely comprising of women and youths, went ecstatic as the President directed the Finance Ministry to promptly avail the money to KCCA.
Yet whereas the President’s directive will be that much exciting, actualization of the same takes longer than many of the intended beneficiaries might be willing to be patient for. The process to obtain additional cash to facilitate the enlarged wage bill takes time as many stakeholders, including Parliament, have to make some input and authorization. This new policy by the government, as proclaimed by the President himself, has taken longer than was anticipated for KCCA to operationalize.
“The answer depends on the numbers. KCCA employs casual workers not just for sweeping. We have landscapers, desilters, market teams and several other wage earners across the five Divisions,” says a knowledgeable KCCA insider.
But it’s also true that several stakeholders, especially politicians, moved to manipulate the President’s Bonna Bakole directive by seeking to inflate the list of sweepers with their own supporters and campaigners. This too complicated the entire process to integrate the new teams as the leadership at KCCA worked with people at Parliament and the Finance Ministry to find the money to operationalise the President’s directive.
Whereas, at their riot parade this week, some of the politically manipulated cleaners and sweepers claimed that KCCA was being indifferent about their remuneration and welfare-related concerns (some claim to have gone 6 months without pay), there hasn’t been much the leadership at City Hall could do for the thousands of rampaging cleaners because there is naturally need for more money (and in billions), which the cash-starved Finance Ministry hasn’t been able to promptly provide as yet.
The KCCA Executive Director and other Authority officials have this Friday morning been quoted in the media as explaining that they are more than willing to promptly pay the sweepers and cleaners because there is no way any of them can play with the Presidential directive except that money hasn’t yet been readily availed to them by the Finance Ministry.
That failure to pay the cleaners has been occasioned by the clearly constrained Finance Ministry’s delay to find the money and pass it on. Gratefully, there is no way government or any of its agencies can ever commit itself to paying up and they don’t pay. They always pay up, and their word can always be taken to the bank.
The President’s “Bonna Bakole” directive was proclaimed in March 2023 and implied that KCCA would get an enlarged budget allocation to cater for the increased work force of especially sweepers stretching in several thousands. However, the anticipated additional budget from the Finance Ministry has been delayed as has already been referenced. KCCA was willing to pay but there was simply no money to pay up and that is the reason for the demonstrations we all saw at City Hall this very week.
Some online media reports have this Friday morning quoted the ED Dorothy Kisaka as explaining: “We care about welfare of the workers. We have pursued the additional budget issues since June 2023 with the Ministry of Finance. Where do you expect Kisaka to get money to fund a government policy when no budget has been allocated as yet?”
But going forward, there is some good news that can be anticipated since the government has released some money and thereby enabling KCCA to pay up these sweepers all their arrears covering up to June 2024. The usually long and bureaucratic government processes to release such additional funds commenced some days back and had just been completed as of 6th June 2024. It had to go through all levels of approval; through Parliament and the Ministry of Finance.
But going forward into the future, KCCA is working out a more lasting solution to realign the procuring of similar services for the new financial year which is beginning on 1st July 2024. The idea is to resolve this cleaners’ issue once and for all. “There are those who think they will gain by inciting the workers to demonstrate but the administration at KCCA is working towards establishing transparent systems for a long lasting solution to manage the city more effectively,” says a KCCA official.
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