Gen Katumba directs KCCA, UNRA to evict roadside vendors
Vendors have kept coming back on the city streets despite efforts to relocate them. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- Gen Katumba emphasized that all persons operating roadside businesses are doing it illegally, urging the relevant authorities to take decisive actions against them.
The Minister of Works and Transport, Gen Katumba Wamala has directed Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) to evict all vendors who are operating businesses along the shoulders and walkways of the city roads, with immediate effect.
He emphasized that all persons operating roadside businesses are doing it illegally, urging the relevant authorities to take decisive actions against them.
“In accordance with Section 65(1)(e) of the Roads Act, 2019, a person who carries out a business activity on the shoulder, sidewalk or road reserve of a public road commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred sixty-eight currency points or imprisonment not exceeding seven years or both,” he said, on Friday while speaking to journalists in Kampala.
“This is therefore to ask you [KCCA and UNRA] to implement the above Section of the Roads Act, 2019 using your respective enforcement teams or traffic police, where necessary,” he added.
Gen Katumba further explained that the hundreds of vendors who were evicted from the roads ahead of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and G77+ China summits should find other places to do business, adding that no one will be allowed to operate on the roadsides again.
“The illegal businesses usually lead to interference with the movement of vehicles and pedestrians [as well as] encroachment on the road carriageway leading to increased incidences of vehicle conflicts and traffic jams,” Gen Katumba said.
The deputy KCCA director, Eng David Luyimbazi expressed the authority’s commitment to enforce the minister’s directive, saying that the operations are starting with immediate effect.
“For the benefit of this directive, we shall go on with the operations we have been implementing ahead and during NAM. All illegal businesses on the roadsides will not be allowed on the city roads, drainage channels and other ungazetted places,” he said.
Eng Luyimbazi added that all the 445 boda-boda stages in the capital city are to be marked as part of the innervations to streamline the boda-boda business in Kampala.
It is estimated that close to 3, 000 businesses and several boda-boda stages were evicted from the major roads that were used by the delegates who attended NAM and G77+ China summits that were held in Kampala last month.
