MBARARA-Lock-up owners and other vendors in the newly constructed Mbarara Central Market are castigating the city leadership which has embarked on demarcating verandas to create space for vendors operating on the city streets.
According to Emmanuel Muhumuza, the Mbarara Central Market Vendors Association chairman, the exercise which is ongoing started in December last year.
“The council has demarcated the whole market, marking places where they can allocate new vendors. They even came at my shop to do the demarcation but I disagreed with them,” said Muhumuza.
He said those displaying their products on the verandahs of the rented lock-ups have been told to remove them or pay extra rental fees.
“This market is a government property built for low-income earners so that they fight poverty in their households. We cannot allow council authorities to do what they want,” he said, adding that the greed of council officials would see the market have 2,000 vendors, which he said is above its capacity.
Muhumuza appealed to the city council to always engage the market leaders when bringing any changes related to the market.
“We are the custodians of this market and our input has to be captured as well. We shall not allow council to suffocate the current vendors in the move to collect more rental fees,” he said.
Winnie Begumanya, one of the aggrieved vendors in the market said she no longer has any space on the verandah of her lock-up yet she is supposed to display her clothes.
“I am requesting council to stop the exercise of allocating our verandas so that we can keep displaying our items,” she said.
Shallon Natuhwera, another lock-up owner in the market, is concerned that the new vendors to be allocated space on the verandahs will pay less rent, adding that some vendors on floor three of the market, whose business has failed to pick up, have exited.
“I pay Shs 150,000 per month but council is telling me to remove my commodities from the verandah. They want to allocate that space to mobile money operators. How do they think I will sell my products when they are not displayed,” Jane Behayo, who operates a general merchandise business said.
As you can see I have my fridge outside where I put cold drinks for people to buy. They are telling me to put it inside but I will not do it,” Enock Monday, a shopkeeper said, appealing to the Ministry of Local Government to intervene.
However, Richard Mugisha, the deputy city town clerk, retaliated that council is the sole landlord which has all powers over the market.
“Although that market is primarily meant for low-income earners, the only landlord is Mbarara City Council,” Mugisha said, adding that items like fridges, benches, and display boards and others were not included in the planning of the market and therefore have to be inside the lock-ups.
He said council wants to create space in the market for the vendors operating on the streets of the city. “We expect vendors to cooperate and let us have optimal utilisation of the facility. Let us not have a modern facility of Shs 21 billion with a carrying capacity of 1,050 vendors occupied by only 800 people,” he said.
https://thecooperator.news/mbarara-market-vendors-petition-authorities-over-rental-fees/
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