The minister for Kampala Capital City Betty Olive Namisango Kamya is so annoyed she wants all vendors in Kampala banished because of what she described as failure to follow the law.
Kamya said they will not achieve their goals of decongesting Kampala with vendors on the streets.
“We have a roadmap that we are following and it’s pushing us to achieve the goals of 2020 and one of the guidelines is to decongest the city, widen the roads ,build flyovers and improve management of the transport system in the city but we can’t achieve this when venders are still by the road sides of the city centre ,they shouldn’t be there as well as boda bodas,” said Kamya
Kamya noted that achieving those goals need la sacrifice and adherence to the laws of the country. She urged all Ugandans to learn lessons from neighbouring countries such as Rwanda, where she erroneously said boda bodas are not even allowed in the city centre.
Editor: The Sunrise has confirmed that although Boda Boda transport is better managed in Kigali, they are not restricted from the central business district.
Kamya’s comments upset her colleagues and trade minister Ann Amelia Kyambadde who said that vendors are not a curse.
Kyambadde said: “We are all venders, we sell and market this country like a person selling sweet bananas on the streets of Kampala, we need to know why venders flock the streets ,we should look for solutions but not calling them a curse to the economy of this Nation. I salute KCCA on how they have organised the city though I don’t support what they do and how they do it to the street venders.” said Kyambadde
The minister says that herself she buys from street vendors and the shop owners are the very people who send them to streets and thereafter start complaining. She says it’s not a criminal to do street vending but in most cases young people are affected by the unemployment.
The central division mayor Charles Serunjogi on the other hand urged KCCA to make some amendments in the act aimed at establishing vending grounds in the city centre which will see them doing bussiness like any other Ugandan.
