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ARUA - Arua City Authority has issued a two-week ultimatum to clean up the city of all forms of street vending.

The issuance of the ultimatum was announced by the mayor Arua city, Sam Wadri Nyakua, following their meeting with the Parliament’s Committee on Public Service and Local Government at city hall on March 4, 2024.

The meeting chaired by team leader, Hoima East MP Dr Isingoma Patrick Mwesigwa, guided the city authority on how to clean up the city of the mess associated with street vending.

This follows concerns from the city authority that the market act cannot be operationalised effectively without the regulation after being given the green light by the local government minister Rafael Magyezi in November 2023.

However, the committee disagreed with this reasoning saying the Act has given enough powers to the city authority to effect orderliness in the main market.

Committee’s guidance

Committee member Mboizi Arthur Waako, said the second schedule of the Market Act clearly outlined the powers of the city authority even without the regulation.

The Budaka County legislator said failure by the city authority to effect enforcement on street vending will only work to the advantage of the street vendors amidst the local revenue woes.

Workers’ representative Agnes Kunihira Abwoli, who was the seconder of the law before its enactment, said it does not talk about street vending, urging the leaders to immediately prevail so no minister or commissioner will be in the position to address the local challenges in the city.

Abwoli said it is upon the city council to pronounce itself on the operationalisation of the market using the existing laws which they have failed to do.

MP Mwesigwa said their guidance needs to be taken into serious consideration as they are going to closely follow up on the actions taken by the city council in a fortnight.
Ministry distances from market confusion.

Unallocated stalls in the Aarua Central Market. (All Photos by Robert Adiga)

Meanwhile, Jackie Kemigisha Kiiza, the urban administrator in the local government ministry said the challenges facing Arua Central Market are purely administrative and need a local solution since the Market Act has not pronounced itself anywhere on the issue of street vending.

“As a ministry, we have been doing extensive consultations regarding regulation and we moved countrywide including in Arua city the minister issued a seven-point guideline on how the market can be operationalised in Arua city but to date, nothing is done. The problem of the market in Arua city is domestic, not even us from the ministry can put this matter to rest,” said Kemigisha.

Ultimatum

City mayor Arua Sam Wadri Nyakua issued a two-week ultimatum to the Arua Central Division town clerk to have all street vending and illegal market issues addressed decisively.

“I was told without market regulation, we cannot enforce and now that you have guided that we can enforce without the market regulation, I have given them two weeks to ensure that the streets of Arua city and illegal markets must be cleaned by the 20th of this month,” ordered mayor Nyakua.

The central division town clerk Malik Drakuma commended the guidance issued by the parliamentary committee saying they feared working outside the law, a reason they were waiting for the market regulations.

Vendors fault city authority

This decision follows numerous outbursts from the leadership of the vendors who accuse the city authority of conniving with the street vendors and operators in illegal markets from whom they pick hard cash as opposed to payment through IRAS (Integrated Revenue Administration System) by the market occupants.

The vendors’ leadership also faulted the city authority for their unwillingness to return orderliness to the city.

Gloria Fiada, the secretary of Arua City Market Vendors Association says they registered 5,012 vendors between 2010 and 2015 and managed to fit in almost all except about 300 who missed spaces.

Fiada wonders why the market should not be enough for vendors when over 700 stalls have remained unoccupied on the upper floor.

“We failed to allocate the over 300 vendors after the MATIP guideline had expired and the vendors requested 420 lockups against the only 97 lockups constructed without explaining the reason for the lesser number, when are we going to do the right thing in this city,” said Faida.

John Anguyo, the chairperson for textile vendors, says they ignorantly blamed the local government minister, not knowing the problem is from within after failing to execute the directives of the minister since November.

“UNRA had come with a good guideline that no vending on the road pavements and if our council had taken that advantage, the issue of the regulation would not be a problem in the city,” Anguyo said.

Some of the disgruntled vendors on the upper floor of the market which remains unoccupied to date, threatened to abandon the stalls and join their colleagues on the streets due to numerous unfruitful meetings and visits to the market by different ministers and parliamentary committees.