KCCA drafts law to regulate markets

Trade. Traders and shoppers at Usafi Market in Kampala go about their businesses recently. PHOTO BY ALEX ESAGALA

What you need to know:

  • Some of the public markets managed by KCCA are; Wandegeya, Usafi, Nakawa, Bugolobi and Nateete, among others.
  • Ms Sarah Kanyike, the deputy Kampala Lord Mayor, told Daily Monitor yesterday on phone that a business committee will convene to set the date for the next council meeting to discuss the Bill.

Kampala. An ordinance to streamline the management of both public and private markets in the city has been made by the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), Daily Monitor has learnt.

The 2018 KCCA Markets Ordinance, prepared by the committee of the legal affairs and the directorate of legal affairs, is at its final stages and it will be presented to council for the third reading before it’s passed into law.

The Bill seeks to, among others, provide a clear and comprehensive licensing regime for permanent, semi-permanent and temporary markets, harmonise market dues and provide a process through which market leaders can be elected under the term limits setting.

Mr Bruhan Byaruhanga, the chairperson of the legal affairs committee, which is handling the Bill, told Daily Monitor in an interview yesterday that many markets in Kampala are plagued by wrangles, which he said paralyse business.

“Majority of city markets were established between the late 1950s and 1960s, but overtime, their capacity has been overpowered by the urban population growth hence increase in the number of vendors, which require control by way of regulation,” he said.

Mr Byaruhanga further stressed that city markets have been infiltrated by elements with selfish interests, something he said has pushed out many urban poor from business.

The law
Section 8 of the KCCA Act, 2010, empowers the city authority to make ordinances in line with the Constitution or any other law passed by Parliament.
Mr Byaruhanga explained that after passing the Bill, KCCA will then forward it to the Attorney General for scrutiny to ensure that it’s not inconsistent with the current laws.

Although the Kampala City Council (KCC), the predecessor of KCCA made a markets ordinance in 2006, Mr Byaruhanga said it didn’t address most of the contentious issues such as leadership, which he said is the major challenge in most city markets.
Currently, there are 51 markets in the city.

Of these, 24 are privately owned, 19 are owned and managed by KCCA and eight are owned by Buganda Land Board.
But even within the ones that KCCA manages, complaints abound, arising out of mismanagement, revenue collection and general welfare, among other issues.

Some of the public markets managed by KCCA are; Wandegeya, Usafi, Nakawa, Bugolobi and Nateete, among others.
Ms Sarah Kanyike, the deputy Kampala Lord Mayor, told Daily Monitor yesterday on phone that a business committee will convene to set the date for the next council meeting to discuss the Bill.

“I have already issued a notice to the committee members to come for a meeting. We want to expedite the passing of this Bill to restore sanity in city markets,” she said.