Prime
Musisi celebrates KCCA exit in speech
Outgoing Kampala Capital City Authority executive director Jennifer Musisi. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
Farewell. Kampala Capital City Authority executive director Jennifer Musisi delivered a farewell speech at Uganda Manufactures Association Hall on Wednesday night ahead of her departure from City Hall tomorrow. Daily Monitor’s Amos Ngwomoya was there and captured highlights of her speech.
My heart is full of joy and thanksgiving to God. I want to recognize my bosses, the ministers that are seated here, political leaders and all of you my people. Today is a special day of celebrations. We have cried, lamented and some of you were angry with me for resigning.
People’s reactions
There are friends of mine who refused to come today, saying they couldn’t handle the fact that I was leaving Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA). However, I, finally understood and said let them be, I will reach out to them and explain why I chose to leave.
I want to thank His Excellency who has been my boss. He has entrusted me with sensitive assignments including that of KCCA and I have tried to do my best. For those of you who will see him, tell him I said thank you.
I want to thank a special and dear person without whom I wouldn’t be here today. She taught me everything and took me to school. She taught me values of hard work… My mother one time told me I would be a great person and as the years went by, I began to see what she meant. God put me in serious positions.
I want to thank the initial team of KCCA. These people took the risk and trusted me to be their leader.
They took the risk, resigned their well-paying jobs, caught my vision and came to work with me in KCCA even without a salary because they wanted to be part of the transformation of the city.
How it started
We brought our own computers, furniture. We brought everything when we were starting.
The first time I reached KCCA was when I was being introduced to the public. You can imagine the amazement; you are sitting and rats cross over even when there are pressmen. The place smelling, no water, and to go to the toilet we had to go to Serena Hotel. The only car we had made several trips to Serena. I thank Serena for allowing us use their toilets when we didn’t have our own.
The KCCA technical team, thank you for spending sleepless nights to transform Kampala. I thank our sports team because we have been on top in netball, volleyball, football and boxing. We are on top everywhere. I want to thank the government of Uganda for the funding. However much it has been inadequate but it has managed to push us.
I thank our partners, foreign governments who have guided and supported us. I think this is the only government agency where Ugandan citizens donate money to support government projects.
This is because they trust our brand. People have given me a lot of money from their profits to supplement government funding.
I thank the media for going with us in slums, trenches, when people are throwing stones at us. The media has always been there.
Duty. President Museveni and outgoing KCCA Executive Director Jeniffer Musisi tour Wandegeya Market on July 10, 2013. PHOTO BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA
I want to thank politicians both in government and opposition and those who don’t know where they fall. I thank the people of God who have supported us through our work. I have been to all these churches; Catholic church, Orthodox Church, Anglican Church, Born again churches, Seventh day Adventist, Muslims. You have all become my friends.
The feeling
I am leaving Kampala satisfied. I am giving back to his Excellency who appointed me, the government and the people of Uganda a much better city than the one that was handed to me in 2011.
It is a richer city, a city that has a reputation, a global leader of transformation with a sound and committed team. That’s the institution that am handing over today.
If this team is supported to continue the transformation, if the reasons that have caused me and other previous leaders to exit are addressed, this team will carry on the transformation. They will lift this city higher than I have been able to. We have set standards, we have broken barriers, and we have shown it’s possible for Ugandans to transform Uganda without expatriates.
I have left 250 land titles for Kampala and many of these are properties that we bought and reclaimed. We have redeemed properties that were stolen.
What next?
I will hand these titles to the minister on Friday [today] and there are other 56 titles that are still being processed. I have fought battles in trying to preserve the titles of the City that were put in my custody. I have not taken any property of the city.
I have not even got 100 by 100 feet plot in the city because these properties belong to the public and I haven’t taken any money except my salary.
I have not received any bribe for the seven and half years that I have been at KCCA, not because people didn’t offer them but because I made a decision long time that I will never take a bribe or kickback. Once you do that, you are destroying yourself.
I have given back more than what I was given and I have endeavored to serve my God and my country and given it my very best.
Chosen for the Job
Taking on the mantle. When I was coming to KCCA the day the president asked me to rescue Kampala, which I have tried to do diligently, God put into my heart Ezekiel 36:33-36:
“On the day I cleanse you from all your guilt, I will cause the cities to be inhabited. The ruins will be rebuilt, the desolate city will become a greed garden and it won’t be like when it seemed wasteland and abandoned place in the beginning. When all those who passed by mocked and laughed at it, they will say that this land which is a desolation, has now become the Garden of Eden. And the city that was in ruins and ravaged and razed is now built up, fortified and inhabited.
The surrounding nations around you will know that I, the Lord, has rebuilt what was torn down, what was broken, I have planted what was desolate. I, the Lord, has spoken, and I will do it” That’s the promise that the lord gave me on the day I was assigned and I believed and I have seen the lord transform Kampala.
