Africa-Press – Uganda. Some traders have abandoned the new Kasubi market and resumed working by the roadside, barely six months after the market was officially opened to the public, Daily Monitor has established.The illegal activities on the road reserve are slowly worsening traffic jam on Hoima Road, especially during rush hours despite the presence of traffic officers at Kasubi junction.
The Kasubi market chairperson, Mr Ronald Zibu, during a telephone interview on Sunday said some traders had deliberately abandoned the new market.Mr Zibu expressed concern that the vice could undermine growth if authorities do not crack the whip against the offenders. He, however, did not give a specific number of how many traders had moved out of the market.
“Some traders are running away from the market to operate by the roadside. However, the law enforcement officers aren’t doing much to undo this illegal activity and their presence on the road is blocking traffic yet this is the same thing we wanted to avoid by constructing the market,” Mr Zibu said.
He added that there is a group of people fighting his executive in the new market facility and rallying traders to abandon it as a way of protesting his leadership. Daily Monitor could not independently verify this claim.
Motorists have now threatened to demonstrate if authorities do not evict the roadside traders.Mr Isaack Sserwadda, a taxi driver, said: “We thought the traffic on this stretch would be no more but traders have returned on the same road reserve to inconvenience us and this definitely affects our operations. We will act if at all KCCA doesn’t take any action”.
The Shs1.6b facility with capacity of 800 traders has, among other services, a parking, office block, perimeter wall, water, toilets, and a day care centre.Before construction of the new facility, traders had been operating by the roadside, making the Kasubi-Namungoona stretch a nightmare for most motorists.Some traders who spoke to this newspaper last Friday claimed that the new facility does not have enough working space to accommodate the ever-increasing number of vendors.
“There is a problem of double allocation of stalls. That’s why some traders have been running away from the market because you find one stall is claimed by more than two people. That’s how most of us have found ourselves back on the road reserve. There are issues of mismanagement which must be ironed out lest all traders move out,” Mr Seyyid Muwonge, a trader, said.
But Mr Zibu said those who feel cheated should file formal complaints with his office. He added that they could have been conned by people who claim to be part of management.
While commissioning the market last year, President Museveni said the construction of the facility was a fulfilment of a host of pledges made by the government to the people of Kampala on modernisation of markets, roads and drainage channels.“There should never be food vending on the roadside. We want vehicles to be on the road and the pedestrians on the walkways,” he said.
Authorities say
KCCA’s manager of public and corporate affairs Daniel Nuwabiine said some traders had been misled by wrong elements to abandon the facility.Mr Nuwabiine said the authority has now embarked on impromptu enforcement to arrest all those found working from the road reserve.
“We are yet to bring a contractor on board so that they can start construction of the stretch from Kasubi to Lubigi and we hope that when the works commence, those traders will be chased away from the road reserve. But for now our enforcement team is aware and has started operations,” he said.
