The Executive Director of the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), Dorothy Kisaka, has vowed not to resign following recent disaster at Kiteezi landfill that claimed scores of lives.
The incident, which occurred on August 10, resulted in the deaths of at least 35 people and left many homeless.
In the aftermath of the disaster, there has been widespread pressure against Kisaka, especially on social media, with some calling for her resignation over what they say was negligence by her office.
However, during Mondays appearance on Next Radio's "The Big Talk" with Canary Mugume, Kisaka insisted that she is not going anywhere until sustainable solutions for waste management in Kampala have been found.
"I'm not going to resign. I'm not going to run away from this Kiteezi challenge because I need to finish what I started. We started a process of waste to energy long before this disaster happened. We've gone a long way in this matter, and it's about to end and we need to deliver it to our people of Kampala," Kisaka said.
She cited insufficient funding as the biggest challenge behind inefficient waste collection in the city, adding that despite the shortcomings, she and her team at KCCA are doing their best to solve this problem.
"In the last three years, consistently, our revenue collection has gone up, by over 10%. That tells you that there's something we are doing right. And if that money was coming back to us wholesale and we were having it in our pocket as we collect it, we would be able to respond to many things immediately. So, you resign when you're negligent and don't care. But me and my team, we care. We have illustrated over and over again that we care," she said.
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The Kiteezi tragedy came months after, Lord Mayor Elias Lukwago, described the situation at the land fill as a 'national' crisis.
Following the incident, several local leaders and residents said they had complained to KCCA about the potential dangers of ineffective waste management at Kiteezi, but their pleas were ignored.
However, Kisaka dismissed the allegations of negligence, saying she had approached Parliament to secure the release of funds to decommissio Kiteezi landfill, but to no avail.
"If I was negligent. If I was not doing anything about this thing (Kiteezi), I would be the first to say let me go. But that's not the truth at all. In the hot time that this came to me when all the finances were closed at the beginning of July, we went for the budget neutral actions. What's it that we can do? I had been to Parliament in January, and they said go and bring a justification for decommissioning Kiteezi and I went back and brought full presentation on this," She said.
She added, "So, if I wasn't doing anything about Kiteezi. If I woke up one day and Kiteezi burst and I didn't know anything, I would be the first to say I have resigned."
