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Mukono, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Residents of Kyetume trading centre in Mukono district have asked their leaders to redevelop Kyetume abattoir, a once-famous site that has been abandoned.
The abattoir, sitting on 40 acres of land at Kyetume trading centre near the Uganda Railway Corporation inland container depot in Mukono was set up in the 1960’s. At the time, it housed the biggest slaughterhouse and a cattle market in the central region.
The ground allowed the slaughter of about 20 cows at a time. It had hundreds of hooks for the slaughtered animals and well-planned channels connecting blood and wastewater to a lagoon. It also had a well-fenced farm with paddocks and a water pump.
At the height of its operations, about 200 heads of cattle could be slaughtered in a day at the abattoir and distributed to various groceries, institutions and markets within the Kampala metropolitan area, Kayunga, Buikwe and Jinja districts. But its operations were suspended in 2008 and the place has now been abandoned.
With no activity taking place at the site, Kyetume is now a shadow of its former self and residents are demanding for its redevelopment. Many of them say that the current state of the abattoir has affected their incomes and livelihoods as trade slowed down gradually following its closure.
James Kiyimba Kigula, 78, a resident of Kyetume says that during the time of its full operations, thousands of people could flock the abattoir on a daily basis for work and to tap into the other opportunities such as selling farm produce.
Josephine Namwanje, another resident of the area says that the abattoir had facilitated the growth of other sectors like agriculture and industries which are also limping following its destruction.
Ronald Ochieng, the manager of the area that hosted the abattoir says that encroachers have attempted severally to construct permanent structures on the land yet the place is also becoming a den of thieves as a resulting of the growing bushes.
Reverend Peter Bakaluba Mukasa, a resident of Mukono says that besides employing a sizeable number of people, the abattoir had contributed to decongesting Kampala’s city abattoir.
Meanwhile, the district chairperson Andrew Ssenyonga says that he has made several attempts to the government to redevelop the land in vain. He adds that neither the district nor the sub-county can develop the place.
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