Non-complaint vendors, hawkers given five more days to leave Kampala streets

By Charles Katabalwa

12^th Jan 2022

Resistant Vendors and hawkers on the streets of Kampala City have been given fresh ultimatum of 5 days to vacate the streets peacefully.

As security steps up vigilance in Kampala, the Resident City Commissioner (RCC) Hudu Hussein last year ordered vendors to immediately vacate all city streets and shift their merchandise to the gazetted city markets before January 10, 2022.

In a reminder before the journalists at the Uganda Media Center this Wednesday, Hudu Hussein has said that the given deadline expired with some few vendors heeding the directive and joined the nearby markets like Usafi where over 200 vendors have been reportedly taken up stalls while others have instead defied the orders and remained on the streets due to political leaders who always play their cheap politics.

Hudu adds that come Monday 16, January 2022, no vendor or hawker will be expected on the streets of Kampala city, urging those still vending from there to either leave peacefully or wait for the force to be applied on them under the government’s efforts to keep Kampala clean and convenient to everybody.

He has however clarified that relocating vendors off the streets is in good faith aimed at improving Kampala City, save the funds that were used to construct markets and also help traders operating from shops to earn since they pay rent and taxes.

Hussein has also distanced himself from the “Smart City”, one of the youth vigilante groups purportedly enforcing Law and Order in the City alongside law enforcement officers from Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA and police since last week.

The youths who often wear black T-Shirts and light green reflector jackets with the inscription “Smart City”, have been accused of operating unprofessionally, beating vendors, and destroying their property which Hussein denies.