Leadership of Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) have pressed their chairperson Musoke Nagenda to step down and handover office to another personal explaining that he no longer has time for the traders since he currently spends much of his time campaigning for the office of Kampala Lord Mayor.
Musoke was nominated by the NRM electoral commission to contest on the party ticket for the office of the Lord Mayor and fellow leaders are claiming that he has already taken a side and no longer has the impartiality to lead traders from all sections of the political divide in the country.
However, Musoke accuses the association spokesperson Issa Ssekitto of mobilizing traders and fellow leaders against him because he has interest and wants to take over as leader of the association.
Musoke insists that Ssekitto is not fit to lead the association insisting that he is a supporter of Dr Kizza Besigye and his People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) and they are planning to front him as the candidate vying for the position of Kampala Central Member of Parliament.
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Sources inside KACITA said that Musoke is proposing that the only person he will handover office to should be Abdul Katongole the association’s Chief Executive Officer not Ssekitto.
However, a section of traders protest this move claiming that this is a ploy by Musoke to retain the office once he losses the NRM ticket.
“Musoke is illegally holding that office because he was elected as an interim chairperson replacing our chairperson Everist Kayondo who died in 2021. He was supposed to organize a general assembly so that members elect their new leadership which he refused to do. He now wants to hold a political office in the NRM and our office as traders,” one of the leaders in KACITA said.
This leader accused Musoke of not being appreciative revealing that he is receiving a lot of benefits including Shs2m allowances to run his office every month which was not given to Kayondo and other previous KACITA leaders.
Musoke accepted to have received the said amount of money explaining that much of it is spent on running his office on behalf of the traders.
He disclosed that even Ssekitto is receiving money from Private Sector Foundation as a representative of KACITA and he should also account for it.
He declined to comment on allegation that he is trying to amend the association constitution so that he is allowed to retain his office once he losses in the NRM primaries without going through elections.
He also defended his decision of standing on the NRM ticket which has annoyed traders saying that he cannot be their chairperson yet he is supporting a government they accuse of mistreating them and has led to many losing their sources of income.
Musoke disclosed that the sitting government has helped KACITA achieve a lot of success and assured them that if he wins the office of the Lord Mayor NRM will solve a lot of traders’ problems.
Sources within KACITA said that being the chairperson of the association is very juicy because you receive invitations across the world to go and attend world traders’ workshops, meetings and seminars which come with a lot of allowances and business deals.
The leaders are also accused of compromising the system and sealing deals with government agencies like Uganda Revenue Authority, KCCA and landlords who own buildings.
The traders allege that both Musoke and Sekitto are agents of city landlords.
