Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) executive director Sharifah Buzeki has urged residents of Makindye Division to improve hygiene and sanitation to reduce the spread of diseases in one of the city’s most populated areas.
Buzeki, who was accompanied by her deputy Benon Moses Kigenyi and Dr Sarah Zalwango, the director of public health and environment, made the appeal during the Weyonje sanitation challenge 2025 event in Kibuli parish, Makindye.
“It is unfortunate that Makindye Division, which was the best in the previous Weyonje sanitation challenge, has not done its best in maintaining hygiene and sanitation in and around homes and workplaces,” Buzeki said.
She said the Weyonje sanitation challenge is meant to encourage divisions across the city to keep a high level of communal hygiene. She added that proper sanitation reduces medical costs for families and the government because many diseases in Kampala are linked to poor waste management and dirty surroundings.
Buzeki said KCCA will send a technical team to identify drainage channels that are in poor condition so they can be repaired to allow sewage and stormwater to flow properly. She also donated two garbage bins and sacks to local council leaders in the area and encouraged residents to treat garbage as a valuable resource that can be recycled to create jobs.
Dr Zalwango cautioned residents against dumping garbage carelessly and urged them to keep their homes and workplaces clean. She expressed concern that many households do not have garbage sacks and that some people have constructed illegally along drainage channels, causing blockages.
“Property owners and tenants need to take responsibility by keeping nearby drainage channels clean. If they fail, the authority will not hesitate to close them,” she said.
Makindye Division mayoral candidate Yasin Omar welcomed the campaign and asked KCCA to sustain it if the city is to remain clean. He called for better pay for division casual workers and Village Health Teams, proposing a package of Shs 350,000 per worker, per month.
Omar, an NRM supporter, also thanked residents for backing President Museveni and urged them to vote NRM candidates in the next election. He said an NRM victory would protect what he called the gains of the ruling party and help ensure casual workers are assigned duties in areas where they live instead of being deployed far from home.
Other local leaders praised KCCA for the initiative and promised to work towards keeping Makindye clean. They asked for more public toilets, more casual workers on the authority payroll and the establishment of recycling plants to create jobs for unemployed youth.
The Weyonje sanitation challenge 2025, which focuses on waste sorting education, toilet emptying and garbage collection, will begin on 15 next month. The final challenge will take place on 20, when residents will vote for the best performing division among Nakawa, Kampala Central, Makindye, Kawempe and Lubaga.
