KCCA finalizes market ordinance

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA has finalized arrangements to retable the city market ordinance, the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago has revealed.

In 2019, the KCCA council passed the market ordinance providing for the licensing regime for permanent, semi-permanent and temporary markets, harmonizing the leadership process, market due collection and roles of each party in the market business.

The ordinance also sought to regulate all markets in Kampala including both public and private. However, the Attorney General returned the ordinance saying there is no law that provides for the regulation of private markets.

He cited the Market Act, which provides for the establishment of markets by local governments. He said the act only provides for public markets, which means the ordinance can’t be used to regulate private markets.

As result, the KCCA Legal Affairs Directorate advised the political leadership to either have the Act amended by Parliament before they make laws regulating the markets or focus on regulating public markets.

Although the City Executive Committee led by Lukwago had earlier rejected the proposal arguing that private markets can be regulated if government enters a Public-Private Partnership with them, they have now heeded to the advice from the legal team.

Lukwago told our reporter that the city executive committee had a retreat where the Attorney General and the solicitor general’s offices were represented and they agreed to focus on public markets for now.

He explained that they have finalized the ordinance and asked the speaker to call the business committee to scrutinize the draft and call the council immediately.

The revised ordinance provides for the collection of market dues, the responsible party, the leadership structure, election and term of office of market leaders as well as establishment of market masters who will administer markets on behalf of the government.

Once passed into law, the ordinance is expected to provide a lasting solution to the long-term problems in the markets starting from poor leadership, fight for the market due to collections and land wrangles.

The perennial problems prompted the president to scrap the market leaderships in 2020 and directed KCCA to institute interim leaderships. However, the problems have persisted forcing the president to order them to vacate office in February.

He also directed the Attorney General to fast track the passing of the market ordinance to provide a permanent solution to the market challenges. Julie Bukirwa Muwanguzi, the KCCA spokesperson says that as the technical team, they are aware that the ordinance is 80percent complete and will be tabled soon.

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