PICTURED: Eng. Kitaka Secretly Meets Munyagwa Amidst COSASE Probe on KCCA Director

By Max Patrick Ocaido

Mubarak Munyagwa, the chairperson of the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) has been pictured holding a seemingly sensitive and secret meeting with Eng. Andrew Kitaka, the Acting Executive Director, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA).

According to the photos obtained by Kampala Post, Munyagwa and Eng Kitaka are snapped having a secret meeting over a cup of tea in a city hangout (name withheld).

This secret meeting comes at a time when Munyagwa’s COSASE is investigating the alleged unlawful recruitment of Moses Atwine, the KCCA Physical Planning Director. In fact, last week, COSASE under the stewardship of Munyagwa recommended that Atwine is sacked as director, Physical Planning because he is “erroneously holding the office without proper qualifications.”

It remains unclear on if the committee’s decision to have Atwine sacked emanated from this secret meeting between Munyagwa and Eng. Kitaka that was held before the latter appeared in the parliamentary committee over the same matter.

This private meeting raises eyebrows considering that Eng. Kitaka was one of the people who were summoned by COSASE to give evidence against Atwine. Indeed, when Eng. Kitaka appeared before that committee last week, he told the COSASE that Atwine was appointed to his position erroneously.

While Kitaka is entitled to his opinion, his utterances as an Ag. Accounting Officer shocked thousands of corporate practitioners, with many opining that as Atwine’s overall supervisor at KCCA, Kitaka shot himself in the foot by projecting the person he supervises as not fit for the job yet there’s no evidence whatsoever to suggest that he has ever complained about his shortcomings— if any— at any one time.

Others reasoned that as KCCA institutional head, he had the moral obligation to protect his junior colleague instead of casting him in the jaws of his tormentors if there were no hidden agendas. Whereas Atwine is accused of not having the requisite academic qualifications, he is an internationally acclaimed urban planner and it is for this reason that he was initially head-hunted to be part of the task force during KCCA’s transition period and later hired as KCCA’s Director for physical planning.

Atwine is a student of Spatial Planning tenable at Dortmund University code-named Spatial Planning for Regions in Growing Economies (SPRING). He holds a shared Master of Science degree in Urban and Regional Development Planning from Dortmund University in Germany and Kumasi University of Science and Technology (KUST) Ghana. He is also a fully registered member of the International Institute of Development Planners.

Sources say that Atwine is among those who have been lined up for the KCCA Executive Director job alongside Eng Kitaka as President Yoweri Museveni remains silent on appointing a substantive ED to replace Jennifer Musisi.