Selling clothes, meat, beer, cooked food in markets to be banned

People selling clothes and manufactured goods, cooked food, fresh meat and pork, live animals other than poultry and fish, will be banned from operating in markets, if the newly introduced Establishment and Management of Markets Bill 2020, is passed into law by Parliament.

Introduced in February this year, the new Bill also bans the operations of bars, hair salons, lodges, medical clinics and metal and carpentry workshops within a market area.

The new Bill is aimed at facilitating the establishment, management and development of markets in Uganda.

The Private Members Bill, which has already received support from the Government also prohibits activities such as play games, traders shouting, calling for customers, whistling, singing, playing musical instruments and spitting on the market grounds.

Speaking during a consultative meeting on the Bill, which was introduced to Parliament in February, Margaret Rwabushaija the Workers MP, the member who introduced the Bill, said the new law is intended to create organisation in markets for proper hygiene and safety of Ugandans.

Rwabushaija said, for organised markets, there should be designated places such as shops for sale of clothes, restaurants for sale of cooked food and bars for beer, outside a food market.

According to Rwabushaija working with the Parliament's legal committee, she developed the Bill, which has since been shared with the local government ministry for further enrichment.

She said by the time the Bill was formulated, the ministry was also working on a similar law to repeal the Markets Act Cap 94 of 1942, which is now outdated, for proper management of markets in Uganda.

Unlike the current law, which does not defi ne what a market is, the new Bill defi nes a market as an open area, building, or event at which people gather to buy and sell goods or food.

OBJECTIVES

Its objective is also to allow private citizens to own markets in Uganda, in accordance with the ownership rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Uganda.

The Bill also seeks to provide for establishment, ownership, management and development of markets by the central government, local governments, companies and private individuals.

Speaking during a consultative meeting organised by the Institute for social transformation (IST), Raphael Magyezi, the Minister for Local Government said the Markets Act 1942 had overstayed, thus the need for its repeal.

He said there is need to empower vendors to manage markets adding: "The taxes and rent being put are deterring vendors from occupying markets which have been built. We need to think about putting vendors in charge of managing markets."

The IST acting executive director, Maureen Wagubi, wants the Bill to focus on empowering the women vendors whom she said are the majority in most of Ugandan markets.

Wagubi also wants the new law to provide for facilities like day-care centres within the markets, for breastfeeding mothers.

DEFECTS

The current Markets Act, enacted by the Legislative council (LEGCO) in 1942, does not provide a forum for dispute resolution, given the current spate of market disputes between the market vendors and the controlling authority.

According to the proposed Bill, the current law is conspicuously silent about the manner in which the vendors can elect within themselves a market management committee, which can negotiate or have audience with the local/ central government for and on behalf of the vendors.