By John Cliff Wamala

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As a pedestrian going through Kampala’s central business district, navigating many of the city streets can be challenging because of the street vendors and hawkers who occupy the lanes. It is against this background that Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has decided to decongest the city by giving the vendors and hawkers an ultimatum to get off the streets or face being evicted forcefully.

“We have even had our enforcement officers patrol the streets and telling them to vacate, with a human face. The soft hand is not working,” the acting KCCA spokesperson Julie Bukirwa Muwanguzi told the media.

KCCA says that the street vendors not only congest the city but also pose a security threat.

“Fewer people in the city are easy to coordinate, our security teams will be able to patrol the areas with ease. n case of any emergency, the ambulances can go through with ease. We need to have order, to enable the smooth running of the city,” Muwanguzi says.

The move to clear the vendors comes after President Museveni met with city leaders on 2nd November. The city’s political head, Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago says that KCCA’s plans are unlawful and uncalled for. He has advised the authority to implement the existing laws to regulate the vendors’ activities.

“It is about having a tool to regulate, a license. License street vending and hawking the same way you license other businesses,” Lukwago says.

Previous attempts to regulate the vendors and hawkers of Kampala have not amounted to much, usually due to serious resistance from politicians. A previous attempt by the former KCCA head Jennifer Musisi failed after musician turned politician, Robert Kyagulanyi campaigned against it.

 Amanda Ngabirano, the acting Chairperson of the National Physical Planning Board agrees that there is a need to regulate the city’s informal sector. However, she says that this has to be done in a phased manner and a way that does not affect the vendors’ income flow.

“…that does not mean that it is not controlled, that it is not organized, that it is not regulated. We are also cheating them (vendors and hawkers). That is a hostile working environment. It is open to heat, open to any weather issues and the quality of their goods goes down,” Ngabirano says.

Ngabirano adds that this time, the city’s technocrats should work with the political wing to address this issue. There is a new draft of the KCCA regulation of street vendors and hawkers ordinance of 2021 that the city’s leadership, both technical and political, started reviewing this week.

“It is meant to regulate both categories. The street traders and hawkers. And also, having them organized in associations,” Lukwago told NTV Uganda.

The street vendors and hawkers think that this is a better way of streamlining their business. If passed, the ordinance will repeal all existing laws and by-laws like the KCCA maintenance of law and order ordinance of 2006.