KCCA plots to return hawkers, vendors in the city

Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) is considering to return hawkers and vendors on the street.
KCCA executive director Dorothy Kisaka yesterday announced that the authority had designed a plan to guide the operation of hawkers and vendors.
Ms Kisaka launched the roadmap at the Old Taxi Park in Kampala in a function attended by KCCA technocrats, the leadership of various taxi and bus parks, and hawkers. 

She said the new roadmap will consider a number of things, including a clear way of identifying suitable areas for hawkers, proper identification of hawkers, and the items to be sold in specific locations.

 “The hawkers were walking everywhere in the city in a disorganised way. But we are now saying let us get organised. Let us have proper identification of who is a hawker, where does he or she work, what does he sell and from where does he pay something to the council?” she said amid cheers from hawkers who had braved the scorching sun to listen to her.
  
 “After Covid, there were so many hawkers in the city.  Every place was congested. We are thankful that we are planning together. We are going to have meetings with the leadership of the hawkers and come up with clear ways of doing things,” Ms Kisaka added.

She said KCCA had embarked on gazetting places where hawkers and vendors will be settled.   “In the new strategy of the Parish Development Model, which is emphasising promotion of agricultural value chain and helping households come into the money economy, everybody needs a gazetted place to work, everybody needs a licence. Under our Smart City Campaign, we are going to plan for everyone regardless of their tribe so that they can enter into the money economy properly,” Ms Kisaka added.
 She said the decision on when the hawkers will resume work would be communicated at the right time. 

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The chairperson of Kampala Hawkers and Vendors Association, Mr Richard Lubega, commended KCCA leadership for listening to their plea.
“We thank KCCA leadership for fulfilling their promise of allowing the hawkers to come and work from the city. We promise to keep the city clean as we promote the Smart City Campaign,” Mr Lubega said.

He assured the vendors and hawkers that their colleagues who were arrested and imprisoned for illegally operating on the streets would be released.
“We had a meeting with government officials who assured us that our comrades would be released after KCCA has gazetted places where they will work from,”  Mr Lubega said. He said their association boasts of 130,000 members and 600 were in prison.