By Mulengera Reporters
Kacita Spokesperson Issa Sekito had advised Ugandans to act vigilantly by stocking enough food and other supplies and home requirements because, from what he knows, the traders’ countrywide ongoing strike won’t be ending anytime soon.
It’s his view that more and more shops, supermarkets and grocery centres are going to be closed in the coming days and weeks unless the government and the President wakes up on the right side of the bed and gives significant concessions to the striking traders.
Sekito, who has been in the business of leading fellow traders for decades, says from what he has been seeing and observing in meetings with government officials, they don’t seem bothered. Neither do they seem to appreciate the magnitude of the problem and the extent to which the suffering traders have become aggrieved and lost trust in their government.
Sekito says they have been engaging several government Ministries and agencies in a bid to explain their problems and trade-related injustices over the years but he is shocked each time they go for such meetings, the same government officials feign ignorance as if they don’t appreciate what the ordinary Ugandan trader downtown is going through. They shamelessly demand that the same petitions be newly resubmitted. To Sekito, this clearly shows the leaders in government are either not serious or unfit to hold the offices they occupy.
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Sekito says they have written communicating similar grievances for more than 80 times but people in government offices are unbothered and aren’t ashamed to keep asking for similar documentation. He says there is now a lot of fatigue among the traders they lead because they have totally lost confidence and trust in government processes because nothing good ever comes out of such engagements.
Sekito, who was part of the traders leaders delegation that interfaced with the government Ministers at the Finance Ministry on Tuesday, says he and others subsequently walled out on Matia Kasaija having realized it was just a waste of time. In the end, Kasaija demanded that they once again submit their concerns in writing and allow him two weeks to sit down, study the same and subsequently respond.
“I don’t see any hope for our grievances to be responded to and this is why I advise Ugandans to stock enough things because, unless the President successfully intervenes, this strike may not be ending soon and families are going to run out of supplies yet businesses will remain closed and they will have nowhere to buy and replenish from,” Sekito says.
“It’s very likely that the President might intervene and fail to satisfy our demands this time round. In fact, once we conclude that he has failed, we shall only return to the traders on whose behalf we are acting and chat some way forward but I don’t anticipate reopening anytime soon because we are all being crippled to the extent that we can’t survive in business anymore.”
Sekito is also fearful that the endless striking by traders could pressurize government to the extent of beginning to identify influential leaders or voices and begin subjecting them to forced disappearances similar to what key Bobi Wine influencers and supporters have been enduring since the November 2020 riots.
He says even such persecution of the striking traders, which he is certain is being planned by the Ugandan state, won’t bring the strike to an end from what he knows (the traders grievances and anger have been bottling up and now is the time for implosion). The veteran Kacita leader also says there is nothing wrong with their ongoing strike being characterized as political because its political injustices and insensitive decision-making by politicians that has brought them to this point where they are right now-striking as a last resort.
Sekito also made it clear that it would be misleading for anyone to blame their grievances on merely URA because some of the things they are crusading against have nothing to do with the taxman. Take for example the grievances relating to Chinese deceiving government that they are here to promote manufacturing only to end up merely assembling things. He says the President’s much-hyped industrialization is just a facade and mere sloganeering because the guys are merely assembling and not manufacturing nor creating jobs as the President keeps saying.
Sekito says at the end of the day there is nothing Uganda is benefiting from those so-called foreign investors because they are out to compete with local Ugandan businesses in doing petty trade. This is one major grievance they are having as traders and it has nothing to do with URA at all.
NAMBOOZE SHIELDS URA:
And as the strike and closure of shops spreads to other Ugandan towns and cities like Masaka, Mbale, Mityana, Iganga, Jinja, Mukono and other Ugandan suburbs, Mukono Municipality MP the very influential Betty Nambooze says URA isn’t to blame that much because the problem begins with especially NRM MPs who merely vote yes and pass laws (such as the one introducing Efris) without the Speaker allowing adequate debate and stakeholder consultation. Nambooze says URA is merely enforcing the law as has been enacted by Parliament.
“This is strange and interesting. There is a senior colleague MP from the NRM side who a few days ago spoke to me as we walked out of Parliament and said are we the ones who passed that thing? As I don’t remember myself being part of that vote? The truth is that MP was there but they don’t pay attention to things. They are only waiting to hear the Speaker saying the Ayes have it,” said Nambooze who is fully supportive of the decision by the business community in her Mukono Municipality to join their striking colleagues in Kampala and other towns. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [whatsapp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).