A senior official of the United Independents for Transformative Empowerment (UNITE) has launched a strong political rebuttal against President Adama Barrow, accusing his administration of obstructing development initiatives by the Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) before criticizing the council over service delivery.
MC Cham Jr., KMC Business Councillor and UNITE National Campaign Manager, made the allegations in a statement shared with Kerr Fatou on Sunday following President Barrow’s recent comments in Lamin questioning waste management in the municipality.
MC Cham Jr. said the president’s remarks, although not directly naming KMC Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda, were clearly politically directed at the mayor.
He accused the central government of making it difficult for KMC to deliver essential services, citing a D13.1 million tax levy imposed on the council when it sought to purchase refuse collection trucks.
According to MC Cham Jr., the government could have exempted the vehicles from the levy because they were being acquired for an essential public service. Nevertheless, he said KMC proceeded with the purchase of 23 refuse trucks, which he credited with improving waste collection across the municipality.
MC Cham Jr. argued that President Barrow’s criticism overlooked these investments and portrayed KMC’s record on waste management unfairly.
He also cited KMC’s D300 million road project, claiming the council had already paid D40 million to the contractor before the project encountered difficulties that he attributed to the National Roads Authority.
“Government cannot obstruct development initiatives and later blame local authorities for failing to deliver,” was the thrust of MC Cham Jr.’s argument.
He further challenged the government’s approach to sanitation, arguing that waste management is not exclusively a municipal responsibility. Since poor waste disposal has consequences for public health and the environment, he said the central government must also play a significant role.
MC Cham Jr. questioned what practical assistance the Ministry of Environment has provided to local councils and recalled the former “Operation Clean the Nation” initiative under former President Yahya Jammeh, when central and local authorities worked together on nationwide cleaning campaigns.
The UNITE official also challenged President Barrow to scrutinize councils controlled by the governing National People’s Party (NPP) with the same intensity applied to KMC.
He questioned how many NPP-controlled councils own refuse collection trucks or have comprehensive waste-management systems, suggesting that singling out KMC could amount to politically selective accountability.
MC Cham Jr. broadened his criticism to the country’s electricity crisis, pointing to the generator used during President Barrow’s meeting in Lamin amid an electricity outage.
He argued that while senior officials may have access to alternative sources of electricity, ordinary Gambians often cannot afford generators or other backup systems.
He also questioned the quality of some recently constructed roads, saying flooding during the rainy season had exposed weaknesses in drainage systems and raised questions about the durability of infrastructure financed with public funds.
MC Cham Jr. further accused government officials of taking contradictory positions on public-opinion surveys. He claimed that surveys favorable to President Barrow ahead of the 2021 presidential election were embraced by government supporters, while a more recent survey indicating strong support for Bensouda in the West Coast Region has attracted criticism.
While acknowledging the president’s authority to assess the performance of local councils, MC Cham Jr. argued that such assessments should be balanced against the role played by central government institutions in the implementation of municipal projects.
He called for greater cooperation between the central government and local authorities, warning against a situation in which councils are allegedly prevented from implementing projects and subsequently blamed for weaknesses in public service delivery.
For MC Cham Jr., the debate over KMC goes beyond waste collection. He said it raises broader questions about decentralization, cooperation between central and local government, accountability and the extent to which political differences should influence development and public-service delivery.
