The Prime Minister of Uganda Robbina Nabbanja retariarated government commitment to buy Tycoon Bosco Muwongezi’s Kisenyi land which is currently being used temporarily to accommodate some street vendors.
She Kampala City is the poorest organized capital city in East African region and this is hugely attributed to the congestion brought about by lack of trade order. This is what compelled government to push out vendors from streets and get accommodation in KCCA markets.
Right Hon. Nabbanja said that government is strategizing on constructing at least one extra market in each of all the five divisions in Kampala to accommodate all vendors who were chased out of streets and this will help to decongest the streets and bring trade order.
While addressing the vendors at Bosco Muwonge’s land that currently accommodating the street vendors and hawkers cautioned those who have resisted on streets to abide by KCCA regulations and get spaces in the markets to avoid being arrested and taken to jail all the time.
She also asked them to reach her whenever they encounter challenges because she was given the office strategically to reach out to the common people and listen to their challenges such that they can be dealt with by enacting the relevant policies and laws.
“ I worked with the Attorney General of Uganda and we managed to secure the release of some vendors who had petty case from Luzira and other prisons but I don’t want to be ever going to plead for you when you are arrested for vending on the streets.’’ Rt. Hon. Nabbanja cautioned the vendors.
The Minister for Kampala Metropolitan Affairs Ms Minsa Kabanda said that Tycoon Muwonge wants to sell the so called Kisenyi 10 acres of land to another developer because of the government delay to decide whether it’s in position to purchase the land.
Kabanda called government to speed up its plans of acquiring this land because it’s in prime area and its huge enough to allow the construction of a modern market that will accommodate at least 30,000 vendors.
The executive director of KCCA Dorothy Kisaka thanked the groups of people like Seven Hills and UTOF for helping to ensure sanity and security in the city.
In January, 2023, Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago opposed the sale, alleging it was a questionable transaction in which the government budgeted $100 million (USh365 billion) to buy land to settle street vendors and claimed it was a scheme to steal taxpayers’ money.
Lukwago say that there’s no acre of land in Kampala that can cost a whooping Ushs 37 billion. He said that there are cartels of mafias who want to gain from this deal.
The parliamentary Committee on Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) is also opposed to the government’s move to purchase a 10-acre piece of land in Kisenyi at a whopping Shs380 billion.
By George Bukenya and Dan Mugula