Africa-Press – Uganda. More than 500 vendors in Soroti City stormed the office of the Resident City Commissioner (RCC) on Monday to protest corruption in the allocation of stalls in the newly constructed market.The aggrieved vendors, who missed out on spaces during a three-day allocation exercise, which ended on Friday last week, stormed the office of the RCC, Mr Robert Adiama, demanding for his intervention into the matter.
Ms Betty Alupo, a restaurant operator, said her name was deleted from the beneficiary list.“Where shall we go and how shall we survive and feed our families? I am a widow taking care of eight orphans,” Ms Alupo said.
Mr Michael Omuja, another vendor, accused the market leadership and the city authorities of connivance to allocate a multitude of lock up spaces to themselves.Mr Ted Enangu, a businessman, alleged that the names of some vendors were replaced by some government officials at Soroti City and relatives to the technical officers or members of the market vendors association.“We know our vendors. Everyone who deals in fresh foods, vegetables, poultry, clothes, and restaurants but unfortunately, they are using a different list bearing names of their relatives and the technical staffs” Mr Omuja said.Ms Jesca Apia, another vendor dealing in fresh foods, said more than 30 vendors from her section did not get space. “This is greed and selfishness. You cannot share all the spaces among yourselves,” Ms Apia said.
Ms Agnes Asekenye, another vendor, who had not got her allocation by Saturday suspects that their names were deleted and replaced because they refused to offer bribes.“There was a time when some members of the market vendors association asked for Shs200,000 from us but we refused. I personally warned them that I would report them to the RDC, that is when they stopped soliciting money from us,” Ms Asekenye said.In his remarks to the aggrieved vendors, Mr Adiama promised to constitute a verification team to investigate into the matter and come up with an authentic list of the original vendors.
“For now, we have halted the exercise and nobody should set foot into the market because there is confusion. We want to ensure that vendors get into the modern market peacefully,” he said.“Once the inquiries are done, a fresh allocation exercise will be carried out, but for now, as leaders, we want to listen to the grievances raised by vendors,” he said.Ms Damali Asekenye, the principal community development officer for Soroti City, said they will adhere to the RDC’s directive.
According to her, a total of 800 vendors were registered. “Before we had 800 vendors but now we have more than 1,350. The market is expected to accommodate more than 2,000 vendors at a time,” Ms Asekenye said. The city town clerk, Mr Moses Otimong, could not be reached for a comment by press time yesterday.
