Vendors change face of KCCA beautification design

DOWNTOWN KAMPALA   |   KCCA  |   VENDORS

Social media was awash with pictures of the new city resulting from work done by Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) with many showing their appreciation and anticipation to visit the city immediately after the lifting on the lockdown. 

However, with the presence of vendors trading in all sorts of merchandise, one fails to see the beauty of the city as was a few months ago. 

With pavements well-constructed, flowers, and grass planted in the city gardens, to bring portray a green city, KCCA also demarcated different roads, fitted cyclist lanes, as well as pedestrian walkways.

There was an increase in the number of people flocking Kampala city after President Yoweri Museveni lifted the ban on public transport. 

Since there is still a ban on opening of arcades, vendors selling different merchandise around Luwum Street, Ben Kiwanuka and Namirembe Road Street are taking advantage of the ban, to sell their goods by the roadside. 

Vendors have congested Kampala streets, turning pedestrian lanes into selling points for customers to make purchases. 

All this continues to happen amidst defiance to wear facemasks by some vendors and people moving around, as well as failure to social distance. 

While launching the project in February 2019, Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago said a pedestrian in the city deserves better and attractive walking facilities.

Uganda's non-motorized transport policy, which was approved in 2012, emphasizes the need for the provision of safe facilities for active mobility users, particularly, pedestrians, cyclists, and people with reduced mobility.

Anything being done in that regard is ideally, that policy being implemented, although several municipalities are yet to know a thing about it.