The panic and drama that unfolded as Uganda hosted the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) exposed the incompetence and lack of capacity in every sector.

Parliament, Police and Auditor General are currently investigating the use [or misuse] of approximately Shs 250 billion sunk into the preparations.
However, Uganda’s embarrassingly low capacity to carry out simple tasks may never be audited.

For instance, President Museveni’s State House at Entebbe failed to live up to the simple task of cooking and catering for his guests.
As a result, chefs had to be hired from Sheraton Kampala Hotel to help Museveni’s residence with house-keeping and catering.

The Sheraton chefs were particularly hired for the State Banquet President Museveni hosted in honour of Queen Elizabeth II at State House Entebbe.

Security nightmare
The poor preparedness was also rife in the critical area of security.
While the Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura headed the Security and Accreditation committee all along, he was replaced by the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, a few close to the event.
With both UPDF and Police unable to handle the simple task of accreditation, South Africans were brought in. However, their late arrival caused confusion at Statistics House where accreditation was being handled.

As a result, some ministers and other high profile dignitaries were locked out of certain events, causing the organisers untold embarrassment.

Uganda’s security also needed boats to patrol Lake Victoria, and helicopters to watch over the airspace.
President Museveni, who often brags about his army’s unlimited capacity, flew to South Africa four days to CHOGM, to beg for help. South Africa came to his aid with boats and four helicopters. Other boats were reportedly ‘borrowed’ from Italy.

Lighting Kampala
The government spent some Shs 12.63bn on lighting Kampala streets and parts of Entebbe alone. Our information is that the government still owes the contractors Shs 6bn.
The lighting of Kampala City was handled by the beautification committee under the Ministry of Local Government. Available information indicates that in total, 88 roads, six open spaces and five junctions were lit in Kampala. In Entebbe, five roads and two open spaces were lit. While for Entebbe Shs 388 million was given to the Municipal Council directly to implement the project, in the case of Kampala, the government contracted Dott Services to fix street lighting. The contractors say some 3,000 electric poles were erected in Kampala for the event.

Kampala Mayor, Al-Hajji Nasser Sebaggala, and his administration at City Hall, were not pleased that money for street lighting had not been handed to them as was the case with Entebbe.

A reliable source has told The Weekly Observer that with time, most of the underground cables got stolen and the contractor sought government’s help in his bid to get more supplies from the local producer based in Lugazi. But the latter had capacity to supply less than 10% of the required materials. This was in August, three months to the event. But the contractor had to fly in materials from elsewhere. In the ensuing panic, some of the lights imported were smaller than the required type, while others were bigger.

The Weekly Observer has now learnt that because of the power struggle between KCC and the central government, as to who is in charge of the street lighting, electricity bills have not been paid and UMEME Ltd. has disconnected some of the streets. A bill of at least Shs 300 million remains unpaid.

semugs@ugandaobserver.com