The power struggle in Masaka Municipality has taken a new twist with the mayor petitioning the ministries of Local Government and Public Service to sack the Town clerk. In a petition signed by 9 councilors and endorsed by the municipal executive, Mayor Godfrey Kayemba Afaayo accuses the town clerk Johnson Baryantuma of frustrating service delivery in the municipality.
Kayemba argues that the stay of Baryantuma in Masaka is a liability to the municipality. He accuses Baryantuma of failure to implement lawful council resolution; failure to offer the municipality technical advice and lack of supervision of projects that has cost the municipality millions of shillings in shoddy works. He cites a recent incident, when the municipal council ordered Baryantuma not to effect payment for the construction of three roads and school over shoddy works but he defied the directive.
Kayemba says that the town clerk paid over 250millionshillings to Assured contractors, Miss Kenfrey General Enterprises and Axis Company for shoddy work. He says that the decision by the town clerk to pay the contractors in defiance of the council is an acto of corruption, which they cannot tolerate. Kayemba says that they want the Ministry of Local Government and Public service to transfer Baryantuma from the municipality.
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Recently, Mathias Mpuuga, Masaka Municipality Member of Parliament tried in vain to reconcile both officials after Baryantuma declined to attend a meeting convened by the legislator. Now, Mpuuga has thrown his weight behind the efforts by the mayor to have Baryantuma transferred from Masaka Municipality.
He claims his independent investigations show that there is a lot of collusion between Baryantuma his technical team and contractors to steal public funds. But Johnson Baryantuma, the embattled Town Clerk says those who want him out are joking. He says that none of the petitioners can cause his removal from the municipality because they were not the ones who posted him there.
Baryantuma accuses Kayemba and his group of behaving like complainants, lawyers and judge saying that he is ready to defend himself. This is not the first time Baryantuma has come under pressure from the political leadership in the municipality. Early this year, residents dumped garbage and carcasses of goats in the office of the town clerk accusing him of failing to release funds for garbage disposal.
