ANALYSIS: After Park Yard evictions

In her Statement to Members of Parliament, Kamya asked the 10th legislature to rise above party politics and support the development of the Stadium into a modern sports facility.

“I am proud that we have successfully brought to the end a 20 year old dispute and relocated over 5,000 people in a few days, without a gunshot, tear gas, serious injury or mayhem,” she said. She said that KCCA worked with the leadership of the Vendors Association to discuss and agree on the eviction, and that negotiation and discussions had been ongoing for a long time.

Kamya said Kampala has a total of 72 markets and that in each of these markets, there was space to accommodate vendors. She also said that the six months traders will spend in the new locations free of charge would be enough for them to judge whether to stay there or find other options.

“This was not an eviction, it was a relocation negotiated by all parties,” she said, adding “What we need to know is that in every operation there are the good and the bad sides.”

According to Amin Tamale Kiggundu, an urban expert and lecture at Makerere University, however, the fight over Park Yard shows a failure to plan on how to ease pressure on fixed resources in Kampala.

The Don told The Independent on Mar. 6 that sustainable development means ensuring social justice, planning for the underclass and the affluent.

“The problem with our urban managers in Uganda is that they want to be legalistic instead of being flexible while dealing with our people,” he said. He said the government needs to expand urban planning to other towns by extending social services and infrastructure to check rural urban migration that is currently putting pressure on fixed resources such as land in Kampala.

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editor@independent.co.ug