Kampala City Traders Association, KACITA have pinned the city authority councilors for frustrating the city trade order by extorting money from street vendors.
KACITA chairman, Everest Kayondo on Wednesday presented a three-page document to Lord Mayor, Erias Lukwago highlighting a number of challenges facing the business community in the city.
Kayondo says traders are faced with the problems of street vending, lack of parking space for their customers and poor garbage collection.
Other challenges include high charges on trading licenses, parking of taxis in the middle of the streets and the unregulated boda-boda stages in the city centre.
Mubarak Ntale, the traders’ deputy spokesman alleged that KCCA councilors, law enforcement officers and politicians have demarcated the streets for vendors to work.
Ntale says KACITA has been keeping records of these councilors and other politicians using the Lord Mayor’s office to extort money from the vendors, guaranteeing their stay on the streets.
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Ntale says several vendors have abandoned their stalls in the markets and shops to the streets, where it is easy to target quick potential customers.
He threatened that KACITA would mobilize the traders to abandon the shops and start operating on the streets.
Lukwago noted that the Kampala Capital City Act 2010 mandates him to initiate polices for the development of the city, but has decided to use this period to consult stakeholders including KACITA, to have their opinions of the kind of the city they deserve.
Lukwago appointed Baker Sserwamba, a councilor representing Makindye, to investigate KACITA allegations over the councilors’ conduct.
In a separate interview with Uganda Radio Network, Sserwaba said on several occasions, he had heard the same allegations saying his new mandate will enable him to name the councilors in question.
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According to Sserwamba, councilors are supposed to be engaged in policy making while the law enforcement officers are responsible for directing vendors dealing in perishable goods.
