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Mbarara, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Mbarara city authorities have displayed the list of vendors ahead of the reopening of Mbarara Central Market.
Last week, the Minister of Local Government Raphael Magyezi directed the city leaders to display the list of the rightful vendors. He said that the rightful vendors are those that were initially in the old market before the reconstruction started in 2017.
The list that has 500 vendors has been displayed on the City Council and Central Market Notice boards. It includes the name of the vendor, the lockup/stall numbers, and the category of business.
Robert Mugabe Kakyebezi, the Mbarara City Mayor says the reason the register is being displayed is to clean up those who were mistakenly included and identify those that are missing.
According to Kakyebezi, they have set up a complaints desk in the commercial office for vendors missing on the list and those that have been given different lockups or stalls.
Nyombi Muhammed, the Chairperson of the Vendors Association says the display of the register will address the disputes over the allocation of space.
He also says as leaders they are currently overwhelmed by the people demanding to be given stalls and lockups.
Muhammed Byansi, the Mbarara City South Councilor faults the ministry officials for sidelining the city council authorities when drafting the lists.
Construction of the 21 Billion Shillings four-storied market started in July 2017 after more than 700 vendors were relocated to Independence Park.
On Monday, Roko Construction Limited finally handed over the market to the city authorities after the completion of construction works.
The government awarded Roko the contract in 2018 at a cost of 21.11 Billion shillings under The Markets and Agricultural Trade Improvement Project (MATIP) with funding from the African Development Bank.
The market located in the middle of Mbarara city along Bishop Wills and Mbaguta streets has about 485 shelters for vendors’ stalls, a police post, a children’s care centre, an office block, and water harvesting tanks among other facilities.
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