Collision and contestation of power in Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA)

Abstract

This article describes the collision and contestation of power in Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA). Power collision and contestation in KCCA have been known for a decade since the inception of the KCCA Act 2010. The draft of the Act was to have a better city; however, the implementation resulted in sharp conflicts, and since it broke at the center of power, it left a lot to be desired. Qualitative content analysis was used; articles were downloaded from various newspapers online and analyzed. Results indicate that the Act referred to the Lord Mayor as a political head in KCCA, not the political head of the Authority It was weakened because it reduced the legislative powers of the Lord Mayor to the Speaker and hence making the Mayor accountable to the Council; the Ministry of Kampala in consultation with the Ministry of Lands and Local Government shall coordinate the planning of the City and proposed an establishment of an executive committee appointed by the Lord Mayor on matters of legislation. The patronage approach cannot overtake the powers of the people and belittling the powers of elected leadership will only create more problems than the Government can solve.