Africa-Press – Uganda. Mbarara Central Market vendors have petitioned the city council over rent. The traders say they pay between Shs80,000 and Shs300,000 monthly, which they say is too high compared to their earnings.
While addressing the council last Friday, the Mbarara mayor, Mr Robert Mugabe Kakyebezi, asked the office of the city clerk to institute a team to investigate the matter.
“The exercise of resettling vendors into the central market was fully done. A total of 1,079 vendors were allocated facilities and are operational. The town clerk signed the allocation letters, now they are at Ministry of Local Government level for signing,” he said.
He added: “However, some category of vendors wrote a petition opposing the fees to be paid as per the charging policy”.
The deputy mayor, Ms Priscah Murongo, said traders have threatened to abandon the new market if the issue is not resolved.
“We have about five petitions and these come from the fish traders who said they had failed to meet the rent fees. Those in fruit business are complaining that those operating from the first and second floor are paying Shs300,000, which is becoming hard to pay,” Mr Murongo said.
She added: “This is our project. We don’t want it to die because we are running after money. We all went to Fort Portal, people abandoned the market and some went back to their villages and the market is now lying idle”.
The councillor representing workers at the City council, Mr Ben Twahirwa, asked authorities to charge affordable rates.
“I got a chance one time to move around the market. The market charge policy should be reviewed because there is no business yet in that market,” he said.
He added: “We should always avoid top-bottom planning, we rather move bottom-top. We made the charge policy without visiting that facility right from the lower level up to the top”.
Ms Sheebah Byentaro, another councillor, said: “…When you look at the size of the stalls really the money we charge them is too much” .
Mr Donozio Kibanda, a vendor, said authorities did not put in to consideration the fact that vendors were recovering from the effects of Covid-19.
“Council was unfair to us, the market is for vendors and we were still in Covid-19 struggle and we cannot manage to pay Shs300,000 as rent,” he said.
Mr Rogers Betunga, an agro-input dealer, said he would abandon the market after the two-month grace period.
“There is no way you can survive in that limited spaced market. If they do not revise the rent fees we shall leave the market,” he said.
The chairperson of Mbarara Central Market Association, Mr Emmanuel Muhumuza, said they are optimistic that council will resolve the matter.
“The rent we are paying ranges from Shs80,000 to Shs300,000 depending on what you are doing but that is too much” he said.
He added: “At the fourth floor almost all rooms are empty, nobody has gone there. All the lock ups are still closed because vendors are saying the money is too much yet there is no business”.
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