WHY KAMPALA CITY COUNCIL MAY REVERT TO DIRECT COLLECTION OF MARKET DUES

Feb 11, 2009

During the Kampala City Council (KCC) budget conference recently, the director of finance, Bakka Musujja, announced that the council would stop leasing out markets and instead collect revenue from them. “Leasing out markets affects revenue collection,â€

By Joshua Kato

During the Kampala City Council (KCC) budget conference recently, the director of finance, Bakka Musujja, announced that the council would stop leasing out markets and instead collect revenue from them. “Leasing out markets affects revenue collection,” he said.

The move will be a return to the old system, where KCC personnel collected revenue from the markets.

The system was dropped in 2000 when it was discovered that a lot of the revenue collected ended up in the collectors’ pockets.

“The system is so expensive and riddled with corruption,” the then mayor, John Ssebaana Kizito, said.

By 2002, Nakasero Market had been tendered out to Sheila Investments and St. Balikudembe to Victoria International.

Other markets — Shauriyako, Kisekka, Nakawa, Nateete, Ndeeba and Kalerwe — were also tendered out. However, the contractors defaulted most of the time. At one time, Sheila and Victoria had arrears of over sh600m.

In 2004, the city authorities, under the Kampala City Strategic Plan, resolved to turn all the markets into modern shopping malls. This plan still stands, but it was discovered that it would causes more loss of revenue.

During the 2007/08 Kampala Central Division budget reading, it was observed that following the sale of two big markets in the city, revenue collection had drastically dropped.

Markets are one of the leading sources of revenue for local governments. However, in the case of KCC, revenue collection has been affected by the confusion that follows almost every lease that KCC gives out. Before the lease of St Balikudembe Market, KCC collected about sh100m from the market. However, this dropped to about sh70m when Hassan Basajjabalaba took over. The same applies to Nakasero Market.

For the last two years, no money has been collected from many of these markets due to confusion over the lease offers.

There has been fighting in Nakasero, St. Balikudembe, Shauriyako, Kisekka, Park-yard markets, Ndeeba, Nateete and Nakawa markets.

In most cases, deals are sealed without following the right procedures. Even when KCC wanted to give traders the mandate to run the markets, they ((traders) lost out due to divisions.

“They cannot come together, so it becomes difficult to award them the tenders,” said Nasser Ssebagala, the mayor.

Besides, he said, the traders do not have enough money to develop the markets.

Due to the endless conflicts, President Yoweri Museveni, in April 2007, directed the local government minister to stop selling off markets.

Even before KCC resolves the Kisekka Market saga, it is leasing out St. Balikudembe Market. At the beginning of this month, Ssebagala announced that the traders, led by their chairman, Godfrey Kayongo Nkajja, had been awarded the tender to redevelop the market.

A few days later, the town clerk, Ruth Kijjambu, said the lease offer had not yet been concluded.

These divisions at City Hall are threatening to cause yet another round of fighting in the city.

“The traders have been raising funds for the re-development of the market. They are anxious to find out the fate of their market,” Kayongo said.

St. Balikudembe and Park Yard markets lie on over 10 acres. The market has 7,500 stalls and about 50,000 traders.

“Soon after its construction we, the traders, used to manage the market. We used to collect the dues and pay KCC,” says Nkajja. This was until Basajjabalaba took over.

Although plans to redevelop Nakasero and St. Balikudembe markets began much earlier than those of Shauriyako market, it is the latter that has produced a shinning example of what organised traders are capable of.

Until recently, Shauriyako was a major market located on Nabugabo road, opposite the New Taxi Park. It had over 600 stalls and over 900 traders. The traders, led by Rock Luzze, constructed a shopping mall in the place where the market was.

Leasing out markets is a welcome move, but transparency is needed in the process to avoid conflicts. As the stake-holders fight, a lot of revenue is lost.

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