The politics of the season is almost behind us – for now – and true colours are already emerging, as minister for Kampala Hajati Minsa Kabanda demonstrated recently, communicating the government’s stance on street vendors and boda boda riders.
In a press conference at the media centre, the minister gave vendors a two-week ultimatum to vacate the city streets and occupy available market spaces, or else…!
The same warning went to boda boda riders and taxi drivers that litter the streets outside gazetted stages. True, the city is a mess, currently, but the political leadership cannot distance itself from the chaos.
Ugandan traders have learnt to ‘read the room’, and every time another general election is looming, vendors come out in full force to take advantage of the political vulnerabilities to block roads, sidewalks and every available space with merchandise, knowing well that the powers that be have been gagged by the need for votes.
Each new election year leaves the city in a worse state than the last one, considering that after swearing in, we have barely three years of relative sanity, before the high political season resumes.
If you go to downtown Kampala today, you will be shocked by the congestion and business transactions happening on the streets, but once you enter the arcades, the peace and quiet is amazing – actually, scary, in trade terms! Should the vendors go?
Yes, but in an organized, systematic and sustainable way that will not hold for just a few months before all hell breaks loose again. The city is for all of us, and the city authorities need everyone’s contribution in developing and maintaining it as the smart city government has dreamed of for decades with nothing to show for those ambitious dreams.
Kampala Capital City Authority needs to create organized spaces within the city for vendors, including the well-thought Sunday markets; after that, for places vendors should not be, law enforcement should not be selective.
Why do we have pedestrian-only zones that are now impassable? Why should a street vendor selling shoes be allowed to be permanently stationed outside a shop that sells the same merchandise, only that the shop owner pays for a trading license, rent and other taxes, and the street vendor does not?
There is still a lot that can be done to ensure harmony between street vendors and the KACITA traders, instead of a blanket sweep. The city authorities, for example, could build several, neat, planned and cheap, pop-up stalls in selected streets, for organized and licensed street vending, instead of rendering so many people unemployed in a city already crying for help because of increasing cases of violent robberies.
And without a structured public transport system, it is a fallacy to kick boda bodas out of the city, leaving behind a vacuum. Above all, it is high time Uganda planned for an administrative capital city, leaving Kampala as a commercial city. Competing for space for everything in this small city will only make things worse as the population and trade opportunities grow.
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