Ggita led committee has no claim over Wandegeya market – KCCA

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT  | Kampala Capital City Authority -KCCA says that the current leadership of Wandegeya market has no claim over the market and therefore should respect KCCA’s directive and leave the market.

On Monday, the committee led by Jonathan Ggita was supposed to hand over management of the market to a team of five KCCA officials appointed to takeover.

The team comprised of members from KCCA Directorate of Gender and Community Development and the Directorate of Revenue Collection; Tonny Kawagga, James Byaruhanga, Abdul Anguyo, Esther Kasujja and Henry Bukenya.

KCCA’s team could not start work as planned as the Ggita led committee declined to leave office saying that the vendors had written to them asking that they continue running the market. Ggita says when they were appointed in 2013, they agreed with KCCA to run the market until vendors vote to power a substantive leadership something that has not happened yet.

But now KCCA spokesperson Peter Kaujju has told URN that the interim committee led by Ggita was meant to run the market until KCCA comes up with another decision on how the market should be managed. Now that KCCA has appointed it own officials to run the market, the committee should respect that.

Kaujju says that the Ggita led committee has no claim over the market and should not lock out the owner of the market which is KCCA. He says KCCA is engaging other government agencies like police to see that the committee leaves the market and KCCA takes over full management next week. Previously, KCCA had only one officer working with the Ggita led committee.

KCCA took a decision to suspend the Ggita committee and appoint a KCCA team to run the market following multiple petitions to the office of the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and Minister for Kampala Beti Kamya against the leadership of Ggita.

A section of vendors have accused Ggita of denying some applicants working space, overstaying in office and threatening to arrest his opponents.

However, Ggita says that the management of the market has been politicized hence dismissing issues raised by petitioners against him. He says the market is peaceful and that only a few people politicizing are the ones causing commotion.

He says KCCA should organize an election through which vendors can vote for a new leadership as they wait for the market ordinance to be operationalized.

Kaujju told URN that they are working hard to get the ordinance operationalized so that they can use it to run the market effectively. The ordinance passed by KCCA seeks to provide a comprehensive licensing regime for permanent, semi-permanent and temporary markets, harmonize market dues and provide a process through, which market leaders can be elected with term limits.

Until the ordinance is out, the market will be run by the KCCA team whose members come from who is the markets manager of KCCA.

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URN