KMA boss calls for support from all to develop Kumasi

Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) Samuel Payne has charged all stakeholders within the development chain to put all hands on deck to ward off congestion and filth from the Ashanti Region capital, Kumasi.

Speaking on Akoma FM’s current affairs and political show GhanAkoma Wednesday, January 4, Mr Payne urged that “in 2023, the development of Kumasi is a collective task but not one-man show. Let’s ensure each and everyone out of goodwill delivers their assigned responsibilities to ensure sustainable development in the city”.

The Kumasi mayor told host of the show Aduanaba Kofi Asante Ennin that “city guards and police personnel who are deployed to direct traffic at congested areas somehow become compromised so they are not able to deliver, hence the reasons congestion is at the apex level especially during and after the Yuletide”.

The KMA in recent times has been heavily criticized for overlooking the mount of kiosks and containers, congesting the city centre. The situation is said to be turning the once green ‘Garden City’ into a village.

The charge was led by warlord of Kumasi Traditional Council Baffour Owusu Amankwatia VI, who doubles as Bantamahene. He vowed to lead the mobilization of chiefs for the development of Kumasi if the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) fails to do so.

But the KMA boss – who seemed to have a dissenting view – explained that the city authorities are assiduously working hard both from office and on-field to ensure sanitation is enhanced to decongest the city centre for free flow of human and vehicular traffic.

“If I deploy a city guard to direct traffic and they do not comply, I can only fire the person but what if the replaced officer also does same? We can’t keep firing all city guards, the problem is not about the city authorities, it is more of attitudinal change.

“We have to ensure that in our own small way we do our best as agents of development in a collective manner to achieve the development and sanity we all crave for.”