Owino fire: Shops closed, Streets cleared

By Vision Reporter

A number of shops in down Kampala remained closed and the streets cleared of the usual business following a Wednesday morning fire that gutted Park - Yard Market for the fourth time.

The closure came after the police beefed up by the military fired tear gas and rubber bullets to keep at bay enraged crowds from the scene.

Chaotic scenes played out as police swung in action blocking Ben Kiwanuka Street with ripple effects affecting traffic on the ever busy Entebbe Road.
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People look on from inside their closed shops on Ben Kiwanuka Street. PHOTO/Mathias Mugisha

Old Taxi Park, Kikuubo trading area, Ben Kiwanuka Street and Arua Park on Wilson road were closed to the public as the security personnel battled the stone-throwing crowds.

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A Military Police officer clears Luwum Street. PHOTO/Mathias Mugisha

Park - Yard fires timeline
The Park- Yard Market, established by traders as a secondary market in the car park of neighboring Nakivubo Market, has been a center of trade on second-hand items like textiles, shoes, bags, electronics, and tarpaulins.

February 25, 2009: Hundreds of vendors wept after a monstrous fire gutted their merchandise at the Nakivubo Park Yard, a makeshift market in downtown Kampala.  The market had 3,000 stalls with 25,000 registered traders.

July 30, 2011: Owino Park-Yard market for the second time in a period of about two years was razed down by a fire and the cause was never established.

April 7, 2013: At about mid-night on the morning of Sunday April 7, 2013, fire gutted Owino market destroying property worth millions of shillings.
 
December 04, 2013: The Park Yard market, at St. Balikuddembe formerly called Owino, went up in flames for the fourth time.