By Mulengera Reporters
Having existed since the early 1970s, Kireka main market is one of Uganda’s oldest yet the dirtiest and most backward and undeveloped.
It’s synonymous with poor sanitation, low levels of economic activity and extremely dilapidated infrastructure.
Roughly 350 vendors are registered work space owners there and between them, they employ a total of about 500 others. They sell everything that can be expected in a typical Kampala market-beef, chicken, fish, food stuffs, grain, vegetables, bananas, fruits etc.
The market sits on 0.43 acres of land, which creates limited working space-related problems. There is a lot of congestion and no proper sanitation and toilet facilities. People coming to buy stuff can’t get where to park their cars as they come to this market, which ordinarily is accessible via the Kampala-Jinja Highway and Namugongo Road.
So, upon learning about the World Bank-funded Shs2.2trn project aimed at infrastructural transformation in the three Greater Kampala Metropolitan districts of Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso; the leadership of Kira Municipality (under which the Kireka area falls) opted to prioritize the modernization, reconstruction and expansion of Kireka main market.
The request was put in, closely working with the vendors’ leadership, and gratefully it was accepted by both the World Bank and the GoU. That’s how redeveloping the market became a priority under the World Bank intervention. The Ministry of Greater Kampala Metropolitan Affairs, which Kira Municipality closely has a good relationship with, is the one overseeing the implementation of the World Bank-funded interventions in the three targeted districts.
Its estimated to cost Shs14bn and the project has to be completed in 5 years or else the money goes to support infrastructural transformation in other Municipalities under the Metropolitan Area.
Because, the land is small, the World Bank, Kira Municipality and the vendors opted for vertical expansion whereby the 0.43 acres of land is to be utilized by putting up an 8 stories/floors complex. Two of these will be in the basement to provide car parking facilities.
The storied building, whose artistic impression was recently displayed for all stakeholders to see during a meeting at Kira Municipality headquarters, will be more spacious and have all the modern amenities. Majority of the vendors and other stakeholders, including the area LC1 officials, are excited and can’t wait to see the project getting started and getting completed within two years.
THINGS FALL APART:
However, the Kireka market vendors became divided along the way with some castigating the reconstruction project as too good to be true. Some referred to past experiences and suspected that this was a ploy to kick them out in order for the wealthier class to take over their working spaces.
Over the years, there had been modest efforts by the cash-strapped Kira Municipality leadership to keep improving on the market and at every occasion, some sitting tenants or vendors would be deprived as their spaces got taken over.
“So, even this World Bank intervention is going to result into total deprivation. What they are proposing to put in place is an arcade which is too good to be a market,” is what many vendors have been raising to be chief among their fears in the more than 15 harmonization meetings, which have been held to find common ground and have everyone on board since the World Bank intervention of Shs14bn was confirmed.
Recently, some individual vendors (who gratefully are the minority) escalated their fears by petitioning the World Bank Uganda offices in Kampala. In their petition, which was copied to the IGG, the vendors anonymously raised their concerns why the redevelopment project should be halted so that Uganda’s most dilapidated and dirtiest market remains the way it is.
The reasons included lack of transparency and inadequate involvement of the sitting tenants/vendors by Kira Municipality officials in the process of vendors’ registration and verification. It was claimed that the lists of vendors that were displayed comprised of ghost vendors who might be proxy representatives of the big people in government and mafia actors in Kampala who might be interested in monopolizing space and hijacking the new storied market.
The other concern related to land ownership and the land (0.43 acres) being too small. The petitioners proposed that the World Bank puts government on pressure so that more land is purchased from the neighbors surrounding the current location so that the rebuilt market is bigger and more spacious. The whistle blower also accused Kira Municipality leaders of being armchair and avoiding to make locus visits, which could have enabled them to get direct feedback from individual vendors.
The whistle blower also alleged corruption and asked the IGG to halt the project commencement pending investigations. There were also concerns relating to the uncertainty about where the ousted current vendors will be operating from for the next two years as the construction work for the 8 storied structure is ongoing.
IGG INTERVENES:
On Thursday, Deputy IGG Ann Muhairwe, who had been inquiring into the whistle blower claims, drove to Kira Municipality headquarters, whereafter she visited the locus, to see for herself what exactly is on the ground. To her credit, Muhairwe ensured that her two engagements (one at Municipality headquarters and the other at the market) were attended by all stakeholders, as opposed to meeting the groups separately or just leaders.
Whereas the Kira Municipality leadership was represented by outgoing Mayor Julius Mutebi Nsubuga, Municipal Clerk Benon Yiga and Assistant Clerk Paddy Kakumba; the vendors were represented by a large delegation that was led by Hassan Kirya Alimansi (general secretary) and Stephen Katende (their chairman).
The LCI Chairman for Kireka Central where the market is located, Paul Dick Mukasa, was also present and vehemently spoke in favour of the project. The Kabaka/Kisonsonkole family, which owns the land on which the market is situated, was also represented.
The Kisosonkoles (who are the Kabaka’s maternal uncles) are the ones who originally gave that land as kibanja to sitting tenants/vendors who were there as of the 1970s when it was all still Mpigi district and Kira was just a rural Sub County, not yet even a Town Council.
The Town Council status came in the early 2000s under Museveni’s regime. Kira Municipality currently has a lease from the Kisosonkoke family which still has 22 years to go. The Kisosonkole family representative at the Thursday meeting assured the IGG that they are ready to convert the land into freehold so that it becomes the market vendors’ to own in perpetuity.
The representative unequivocally stated that their wish, which indeed is the Kabaka’s, is to have the facility developed into a 21st century modern market befitting the standards of the year 2026 and beyond. His pronouncement attracted applause and the Kabaka representative received a standing ovation from vendors who were unanimous in asserting before the Deputy IGG that they can’t afford to lose the Shs14bn coming from the World Bank.
Deputy IGG Ann Muhairwe came with a large delegation of powerful officials who included Annet Atwine (Director Projects at the IG) and Gideon Acana who heads the Kampala regional office among others.
The Kira meeting hall was filled to capacity and vendors thanked God for the Muhairwe meeting because it resulted into major breakthroughs as the meeting participants moved towards finding common ground during the Thursday deliberations.
The attendees were specifically excited about the fact that it was during that meeting that the whistle blower, who had always been anonymous, revealed himself to fellow vendors.
They had been wondering who always goes behind their back petitioning the IGG and the World Bank Kampala office to oppose redevelopment, yet their meetings would always end in apparent unanimity that a rebuilt market is what everyone wants. They had had 15 such meetings but each time they seemed to make progress, someone would petition the two offices.
Although they couldn’t know who exactly it was, the vendors always knew that the whistle blower was one of them, being manipulated by what area Assistant RDC Ms Sharon Abu contemptuously referred to as “bush lawyers” who are very many and like operating in rapidly-urbanizing metropolis like Kira.
But during the plenary session of the Thursday meeting (after members had listened to the speeches of the Municipal Clerk, Mayor Mutebi and the Deputy IGG Ann Muhairwe), a gentleman introduced himself as Frank Wafula Muwonge and declared “I’m the one who has been writing to the IGG and World Bank.”
As fellow stakeholders pensively looked on, Wafula gave his reasons as to why he was repeatedly petitioning. It appeared he would always fear to register his reservations in meetings because majority of the fellow vendors are strongly in favour of reconstruction and wouldn’t be ready to entertain anyone objecting.
Ms Ann Muhairwe defended his right to blow the whistle whenever he feels uncomfortable with majority decision. As fellow vendors protested while loudly castigating Wafula branding him a selfish traitor who is anti-development, Muhairwe asked them to forgive and accept the fact that any Ugandan has a right to petition the IGG about anything. Instead of castigating him, she advised, Wafula should be celebrated for knowing his rights and for not being ashamed of exercising them.
Muhairwe then turned on Wafula and counselled him on the advantages of operating in a reconstructed and enlarged market. Some vendors had accused Wafula of merely fearing that his toilet business, from which he earns Shs200,000 per week, would crumble in case the current dilapidated market was replaced with an 8 storied structure.
The Deputy IGG explained to Mr. Wafula the need to take heart while demonstrating the greater benefits that individual investors like him would reap from the redeveloped and expanded market. Wafula reluctantly resumed his seat and indicated readiness to let go.
Muhairwe assured him and skeptics like himself of readiness by the Inspectorate to become an integral part of the project to ensure that no former vendor is excluded from the rebuilt market.
She demanded that the Kira Municipality leadership comes up with the final list of the registered tenants/vendors and make sure the same is conspicuously displayed at all times to enable the genuine vendors to inspect it and identify the ghost names for eventual deletion. She assured the vendors that none of them would be deprived of their respective stalls or lockups in the reconstructed market.
There were wild ululations when the Deputy IGG declared that her office wasn’t going to write a letter halting the project as the whistle blower had demanded now that Mr. Wafula’s fears and reservations had satisfactorily been responded to by area Mayor Julius Mutebi Nsubuga and Municipal Clerk Benon Yiga who made it clear that no one would be deprived of chance to operate in the new market.
People at the meeting thanked the Deputy IGG for dedicating time to come on the ground as opposed to being an armchair arbiter making decisions about the people’s market without ever visiting its locus.
Inside the heavily-congested Kireka market, which is like 5kms away from the Municipality offices, vendors ululated as Ms Muhairwe and her other Inspectorate officials toured their work places amidst a heavy downpour later in the afternoon after ending the meeting with their elected leaders in Kira. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
