No Sunday street for vendors â€" Ssebaana

KAMPALA City Council (KCC) yesterday ruled out a ‘Sunday Street’ for the evicted street vendors, as earlier arranged, reports Solomon Muyita.The KCC authorities said they would go ahead to extend their operation to rid the city of street vendors and other illegal traders.Mayor John Ssebaana Kizito told a press conference at the City Hall that the vendors would be removed from the other city divisions, then the operation would be centred on food vendors, boda boda cyclists and taxis that operate outside the parks.Gordon Mwesigye, the town clerk, also announced the suspension of the activities of the city hawkers until further notice. “We now expect all traders to operate from gazetted markets and shops. The rest are illegal,” he said.Street vendors were evicted from the city last Friday in a massive security operation code-named “Operation Safe City.” The authorities had promised to allow them to sell their wares for certain hours.“That was just the beginning. I now want to warn the vendors in the other divisions to relocate to the gazetted markets before we catch up with them. We are still working hand in hand with the Police and all other organs of the Government. We want to observe that there is no illegal trade and city laws are observed,” Ssebaana said.The Assistant Regional Police Commander Kampala, David Magara, who led 400 policemen in the operation and Livingstone Zziwa and Mustafa Ssebbowa from the City Traders Association, also attended the news conference.Mwesigye said KCC had received reports that some people were collecting sh50,000 to book spaces on the street. “But as long as markets still have space, we’re not about to send people back on the streets,” he said. Mwesigye said empty stalls would be publicised for those who had not secured places.He said the operation cost KCC more than sh25m. “We deployed 200 law enforcers, the Police sent us 400, and we also got others from the Military Police and intelligence. They are still deployed in the city until we resolve to remove them.”