Jinja vendors accuse political leaders of failing market development

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Market vendors in Jinja City have accused political leaders in the city of the appalling state of the Jinja Central Market and its poor performance in revenue collection.

Through their chairperson, Henry Mugimba, the traders say the city leadership is deliberately maintaining street vendors around the market as well as ungazetted markets within its vicinity.

“Why was this modern market built yet the council still wants to collect revenue from the roadside vendors,” Mugimba said during an interaction with technical officers from the local government ministry on September 16, 2024.

The team, headed by ministry assistant commissioner district administration Geoffrey Ettedu, is in Jinja city on a verification exercise of vendors in the market with a view of streamlining its operations.

According to Mugimba, several stalls and lock-ups in the central market remain unoccupied because vendors chose to operate from the streets and ungazetted markets.

The traders, who also complained that the Market Act, which came into effect in June 2023 was made without their consultation, argued that unless the anomalies are addressed, implementation of the Act may not be possible.

They cited other challenges as poor allocation of stalls and failure to clear utility costs, leading to disconnection of water and electricity while the closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras are nonfunctional.

Over 4,000 vendors

In Jinja, the team heard that the market with 4,030 vendors, has 3,560 stalls, 320 lock-ups and 155 stores.

Twelve of the 48 butcheries are functional while 10 of the 16 toilets are functional due to factors such as poor accessibility.

It was also revealed that previously the market would make monthly collections of shillings four million. However, this has of late risen to shillings 16 million against utility bills amounting to shillings 25 million as opposed to Gulu market which is smaller in size but realizes up to shillings 102 million a month.

Accusations dismissed

Jinja city speaker Bernard Mbayo dismissed accusations that several of his councillors allocated stalls to themselves and challenged anyone to produce evidence for appropriate action.

Deputy mayor Fazira Kawuma on her part asked the market vendors to support the city council in the implementation of the ‘trade order’ a campaign that was initiated last year by council with the aim of removing traders from ungazetted places including streets.

The search for efficiency

Ettedu, also the national programme co-ordinator Markets Agricultural Trade Improvement Programme (MATIP), said the President instituted the committee after complaints by the trade union leaders that several markets built under MATIP were being mismanaged and vendors exploited.

“Our intention is to make sure the markets operate efficiently and effectively, not to victimize people,” he said.

According to him, the trade union leaders cited the major challenges facing the markets as; poor accessibility to the facilities, delayed issuance of operational letters, and existence of absent landlords who overcharge tenants fees ranging from shillings 500,000 to one million for lock-ups and stalls.

Others include politicians grabbing stalls from the low income earners, nonpayment for utilities leading to disconnection of water and electricity, poor hygiene due to uncollected garbage, poor revenue collection and conflicts from technical and political leaders.

Jinja central market which was initially built in 1932, was reconstructed by the government at a cost of shillings 42 billion under the MATIP and commissioned by President Yoweri Museveni in 2014.