Councillors constitute committee to investigate Usafi market

PIC: Some of the empty stalls at Usafi market. The market is under contetntion with city businessman Bosco Muwonge claiming part of it 

LAND ROWS

USAFI MARKET- City councillors on Monday, resolved that a committee to investigate circumstances under which Kampala businessman Bosco Muwonge acquired part of Usafi Market land be constituted.

During a council meeting which was convened to discuss the status of USAFI market, Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and councillors resolved that a committee headed by the deputy Lord Mayor Sarah Kanyike be constituted to find out how a market which belonged to Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) was given to Muwonge.

The councillors also demanded that the committee also summon Muwonge to explain why it has taken him a long time to claim ownership of part of the land.

Last month, traders and some leaders in the market protested a move by KCCA and engaged in a battle with the KCCA enforcement team which was relocating them from land which is said to have belonged to Muwonge.

The traders had earlier faulted KCCA for encroaching on the land which they knew was not their property, saying this is going to affect their businesses.

The technical team headed by the KCCA deputy executive director, Samuel Sserukuuma, was tasked with explaining why KCCA enforcement team was involved in a forceful eviction of the traders from land which the Government acquired for them.

"We would like to know why the enforcement team forcibly sent the traders off the land which does not belong to KCCA. If you are saying that the land belongs to Muwonge, you should have let him carry out the relocation," Lukwago said.

Councillors led by Moses Katabu, the councillor representing Kampala Central, said they had received complaints from the traders after they received a communication that they were going to be relocated.

Katabu said he sent out communication to the offices of gender and marketing and the office of KCCA executive director, but did not get any response.

In his response, Sserukuuma said at the time of acquisition of the land, some of the market structures lay on part of the neigbouring land comprised in plot 13-15 Katwe road, Plot 8A and 8B Luzige road. 

Sometime last year, the owner of the said land,  John Bosco Muwonge, demanded that KCCA removes the structures from his land to enable him develop it.

He explained that market structures encroached on plot 13-15 by approximately 18 decimals.

"Our technical officers carried out an assessment to guide in the realignment of the market boundaries. In April 2018 our technical officers demolished the market structures which encroached on Muwonge's land and a total of 100 vendors and 19 small lock up shops where relocated within the market," Sserukuuma explained.

KCCA acquired 6.35 acres of USAFI market from the manager of SAFINET, Omar Nassolo Ssekamatte, at a cost of sh.32.4b to relocate vendors who were operating business along the streets.