KAMPALA: In an effort to decongest Kampala capital city, the Minister in Charge of Kampala Capital City and Metropolitan Affairs Minsa Kabanda held an assessment exercise on the status and availability of working space in public markets on Saturday, to identify the dormant workspaces and re-allocate vendors including those coming from the streets.
All dormant stalls and lock-ups in public markets across Kampala will be reallocated to persons in search of working space.
“The ongoing physical operation of relocating street vendors to gazetted areas is aimed at decongesting our capital. I ask for a smooth process as this is for the betterment of our Kampala,” minister Kabanda said.
The assessment exercise was carried out by the minister, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Executive Director – Dorothy Kisaka, and the KCCA technical team, to intensify operations against street vending.
During the exercise, the minister discovered over 100 lockups that have been locked for more than seven years, while some have been turned into stores.
According to the Wandegeya Market Chairperson Mayi Nabukenya, the dormant lockups were allocated to different people by the former market leadership with the consent of some officials from KCCA. As a result, she says, the 1200 capacity market has over 100 lockups closed, yet the owners are unknown.
She earlier told Uganda Radio Network the Kampala Report partner news agency that several lockups have been turned into stores while others allocated to ‘ghost owners’ only known to the former market administrators, and all attempts to rescue them as well as other dormant spaces have failed to yield results.
Nabukenya accused the Acting Director of Gender, Community Services and Production Dr. Esau Galukande of frustrating people who were seeking working space in the market, in favor of a few individuals.
Dr. Galukande said before the Wandegeya modern market was redeveloped, the area had four markets where vendors possessed multiple stalls.
He said that upon redevelopment, the government signed a memorandum of understanding with vendors allowing them to hold the same number of stalls they possessed before the redevelopment of the market for ten years.
The minister and her team also visited Nakasero market where they were led on a guided tour by the market officials and found that the market was filled to capacity after allocating space to more than 100 former street vendors.
Usafi, known as the streets vendors and hawkers market had also welcomed over 100 vendors since the street evictions intensified.
Upon concluding the tour, the KCCA Executive Director Dorothy Kisaka urged street vendors to get off the streets and conduct their activities in the markets. She said Kampala needs to transform into a smart city.