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KCCA yet to collect tax from city abattoir seven years later
Butchers sell meat at the city abattoir on Old Port Bell Road in Kampala. PHOTO BY ERIC DOMINIC BUKENYA
Kampala- A longstanding row over the management of the city’s biggest public slaughterhouse has seen some butchers sidelined and others controversially fired from their jobs, Daily Monitor has learnt.
Although the facility located on Port Bell Road in Kampala is supposed to be public working space, some butchers claim that the rich have since taken it over and kicked out the poor.
“The abattoir, which is supposed to accommodate all people, has turned out to be a garden of the rich, leaving us, the poor, stranded. Whenever we raise our heads, we are threatened by those who have since grabbed management of the facility,” says Mr Bonny Katumba, a butcher.
Since butchers started running the facility in 2011, KCCA has never realised any revenues from the abattoir.
Accountability queries
At least 7,000 butchers work at the facility but some claim that the current management, led by Mr Abel Mugumba, mistreats them each time they demand accountability for the funds they have been collecting since businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba handed it over in 2011.
Kampala City Council (KCC) had on June 4, 2001 offered a 49-year lease to Basajjabala Hides and Skins Company Ltd (BHS) to manage the city abattoir. However, KCC later realised that he had sub-leased the same facility to the proprietor of Travellers Coaches Ltd, Mr Daniel Kwatampora Katarihwa, in 2008 without their consent.
Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago then halted Mr Kwantampora’s operations in the facility and traders under their umbrella body, City Abattoir Traders Development Association, then began managing the facility.
KCCA lost track of all the revenue which BHS had committed to be remitting to their treasury.
Mr Peter Kaujju, KCCA’s director of public and corporate affairs, admits in that they do not collect any revenue from the public facility.
“It is true we have not been collecting revenue from the Port Bell Abattoir because of the pending issues, which have not been solved. Our health team only inspects it to ensure that meat is clean before it is sold out to the public,” he says.
However, he does not reveal how much they have lost in terms of revenue from the time Mr Basajjabalaba started managing it.
But Mr Mugumba says they collect about Shs100m per month. However, he claims that this money caters for bills such as water, electricity and paying casual workers, among other expenses.
He also admits that for the last seven years, they have never remitted any revenue to the city authority.
“We cannot start paying revenue yet the wrangles in the facility are still raging on, but when they are finally resolved, we shall start paying. It is not our fault but that of KCCA which has failed to expedite the process to streamline the operations of this abattoir,” he said.
Mr Mugumba dismisses claims that the poor are being kicked out of the abattoir, arguing that those penalised are the indisciplined ones.
