BREAKING NEWS. COUNCILLORS OF CENTRAL DIVISION ARUA CITY START CONSULTATIVE MEETINGS TO IMPEACH THEIR MAYOR - MUZAID KHEMIS.

By Eyotaru Julliet.

Preamble.

Central division Mayor Arua city Hon. Muzaid Khemis is in hot soup following corruption related allegations levied against him by the general public. The central division councillors have  commenced  consultative meetings with a sole objective of impeaching the Mayor. According to the Local Government Act Cap. 243 laws of Uganda, to impeach a Mayor, a third of the total council should vote. The councillors who are predominantly NRM now want the speaker Rt. Hon. Osuga Rasul and Deputy speaker Rt. Hon. Victor Lomori Vidali to call what they called an urgent extra-ordinary emergency meeting within a month so that the Mayor can be impeached after finalizing all the requirements in the Local Government Act citing the following reasons:-

Illegal Sudanese fish market at Swalia cell, Tanganyika Ward.

According to the councillors, the Mayor was paid one hundred million shillings (100M) to authorize Sudanese to erect an illegal fish market and forty Million shillings (40M) for the ground rent of the land. To the councillors, this is a gross act of corruption. The councillors say President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has asked all Ugandans to take a firm stand against corruption and shall not tolerate corruption practiced by leaders in the young city of Arua. The councillors further accuse the Mayor of intimidating everybody after swallowing that money something which has rubbed them the wrong way. The Sudanese businessmen dealing in fish last week in city Hall informed a meeting chaired by the senior law enforcement officer Arua city Mr. Twaha, that they had given the money to the Mayor and as such must be allowed to continue with their structure. It must be noted that all structures in an urban area like Arua city council must be in compliance with the law. One must apply to the Town clerk with copies of building plan or plans who shall refer the application to the city physical planning and building committee for approval before Town Clerk okays any construction. This has not been done by the Mayor and his Sudanese counterparts making the fish market construction at Swalia cell unlawful. One councillor said, "the Mayor is found of pretending to side with the ordinary people yet he receives large sums of money for his individual developments." Another one said, "the Mayor is accumulating money with the view of standing for MP central division Arua city in 2026. It's time for service delivery not campaigns." the councillor remarked. In the last two consultative meetings, the councillors have therefore resolved to impeach the Mayor to pave way for a by-election of a corruption free Mayor.

The Barifa Saga.

The central division Mayor is one person who has pledged to die if the 10 acres of land licensed by the NFA to Hon. Oguzu Lee Denis is not reversed. The Mayor has held a number of planning and execution meetings with characters like Acewere, Wadri Sam Nyakua, Avutia Malone, Awuzu Jimmy Angubo, Titus Kamure etc with a view of fighting Oguzu while dragging Gen. Saleh's name in Barifa saga. The Mayor was given five million by Acewere Titus, Hon. Feta Geoffrey and Hon. Maurine Osoru to mobilize the youth of central division Arua city to constantly disrupt development activities in Barifa. On many occasions he has mobilized youth from former R. Oli division to protest against Hon. Oguzu Lee, appeared in meetings and more recently on Arua One FM radio, he vehemently opposed Oguzu's license promising to block the approval of his building plans at the council something which has not gone well with the division council. The councillors have therefore accused the Mayor of being anti- Development and frustrating employment opportunities for the youth. The councillors therefore want their speaker to call a meeting to impeach the Mayor.

Urban Cash.

Uganda Government working closely with International Labour Organisation approved urban cash at cabinet level. As a result of the above, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development released 912,800,000= to Arua city council. Each cell in the central division Arua city should have received 17,556,000=. To date, this money has not been paid to the beneficiaries because of the delay caused by the Mayor who chose to politicise the programme. The reason is that Mayor moved cell to cell in the central division and owned the programme yet this programme was okayed by His Excellency the President. This delay has caused the beneficiaries to plan to mobilize themselves to storm the offices of the RCC and Head of Finance on Monday, 17th January, this year, if this money doesn't hit the accounts of the beneficiaries of the central division. It must be noted that Urban cash programme should have been launched by Ministry of Gender last year had the Mayor not politicised it. The councillors therefore want the Mayor to pave way for a more serious person to be the political Head of the central division and hence the planned impeachment.

Garbage.

Muzaid Khemis who Hon. Oguzu described as an uninformed person on Arua One FM radio station last Saturday has neither taken issues of garbage serious nor made efforts to ensure cleanliness of the central business district of Arua city. Due to his corruption, the whole city centre is a market, dirty and full of garbage. Behind OPM offices, there is accumulated garbage which was last collected in 2021. At Lobidra market there is a lot of garbage yet the council collects a lot of local revenue. The councillors therefore wonder what work the Mayor is doing if he can't concentrate on garbage collection. According one councillor, the Mayor is generally a dirty character who bothers less about cleanliness yet one of his core roles is to ensure that the city is clean.

The new market and vendors.

According to Mr. Dada the chairman of Arua city market vendors Association, vendors in a joint meeting have resolved that they nolonger recognize Muzaid Khemis as their Mayor since he has connived with Sudanese to construct a new fish market at Swalia cell. Dada said the vendors have also agreed never to move to the newly constructed city market unless the Mayor demolishes the illegal market at Swalia cell. Dada has advised the Mayor not to approach them for anything until the mushrooming fish market at Swalia cell is demolished. Dada has therefore voiced their demands to the councillors to be incorporated as one of the reasons for the impeachment. To Dada, Muzaid is anti- government because he should have concentrated on mobilizing vendors to move to the new market. Besides, some vendors and councillors have accused the Mayor of taking about 5 stores in the new market for himself using names of relatives an act which is greedy and uncalled for a leader of his calibre. The vendors have therefore backed the councillors to impeach the Mayor.

 The arrogant and self centered character of the mayor.

According councillors, the Mayor considers himself the central division council and doesn't listen to councillors and that is why he keeps making such mistakes. To them the Mayor is so arrogant to his councillors and most of them fear him. It's therefore difficult to work with him. The Mayor feels he is highly educated ever bragging that he holds a master's degree in business administration something which often undermines them. They therefore want to impeach the Mayor so that they can get a more friendly Mayor who will know how to deal with them. The executive of the Mayor are equally fed up with the Mayor and have joined other councillors in the consultative meetings accusing the Mayor of disrespecting them.

Dodging of high profile meetings.

The councillors also accuse the Mayor of dodging meetings that are usually meant to resolve such matters. According to reliable sources, the Mayor dodged the meeting with the law enforcement officer, Sudanese fishermen and Arua city vendors aimed at resolving this matter. The Mayor is also alleged to have abused some councillors calling them illiterate. This has angered them labelling the Mayor a disrespectful leader not fit to lead them. To them the way forward is to impeach him.

The only  demand of the councillors.

The central division council lead by their speaker and his Deputy demand only one thing from Muzaid Khemis;

"He must personally command the demolition of the illegal fish market structure he and the Sudanese are constructing at Swalia cell, central division, in Arua city."

Councillors have further directed that should the Mayor fail to comply within one week from Saturday 15th January, .2022, they shall proceed to institute impeachment proceedings against him to his embarrassment without further warning.

Conclusion

Arua City is a young city which requires focused leaders who must understand development and laws governing urban development. To the councillors, the Mayor central division Arua city Hon. Muzaid Khemis isn't one such a leader. Therefore he must be impeached to pave way for a more educated, experienced and exposed person who can be a capable political head of the division council.