KCCA demolishes Usafi market stalls

Jun 10, 2015

KAMPALA Capital City Authority has demolished part of the temporary structures at the Usafi Market to pave way for modern structures

By Lawrence Mulondo & Juliet Waiswa

 

KAMPALA Capital City Authority has demolished part of the temporary structures at the Usafi Market to pave way for modern structures, the KCCA public relations officer, Peter Kaujju revealed.

 

The market which accommodates over 1,000 vendors is a wooden market which KCCA wants to set up to be a modern market.

 

Over 300 vendors at Mengo-Katwe market in Kampala were affected as KCCA shifted their stalls to pave way for modern development.

 

KCCA recently bought the facility from a local investor Omar Nasoolo at sh39bn.  Usafi market was opened in 2013 accommodating over 5,000 former street vendors.

 

“KCCA is removing all the wooden structures to set up permanent stalls. We are also trying to ensure that there is enough space for vehicles to access the market,” Kaujju said.

 

He further said, buying of stalls will only be done by new vendors but the vendors who had already paid for their stalls will retain their space.

 

However vendors in the market say that there has been fighting for ownership of stalls at the market by a section of traders.

 

“It has become a daily business for over 300 vendors in Usafi attached to house A1 of the market to fight for stalls,” one of the vendors in Usafi market, Abdullah Kibugo explained.

 

He said that since KCCA took over management of the market, the vendors have been requesting for a place in the market gazetted for people to display fresh vegetables like it is in Nakasero market.

 

“It is now three weeks since the authority put down 364 stalls that were in this house (A1); they have not put up modernized wooden stalls as they promised.” Kibugo added.

 

He further pointed out that it is because of the authorities’ delay to put up stalls that the vendors are fighting each other.

 

The chairperson Usafi market, Joseph Kabugo said that the vendors will not allow buying stalls at sh200,000, saying that this is too much money.

 

Aisha Namubiru also a vendor in the Usafi pointed out that KCCA is registering new vendors in the market especially in the fresh products’ space yet there is little space compared to the number of people that claim to already have stalls in the place.

 

Namubiru requested KCCA to immediately allocate the space to vendors to avoid wrangles in the market as they wait for the new stalls.

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