Mbarara RCC orders for re-registration of market vendors

Mbarara, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | In what is becoming like a ritual, market vendors in Mbarara city are to be re-registered for yet another time.

Resident City Commissioner James Mwesigye has directed for the fresh registration of all Mbarara Central Market vendors.

The directive for new registration follows the election of the new interim leadership for the Mbarara Central Market Vendors Association after the Minister of Local Government, Raphael Magyezi suspended the old one that was chaired by Muhammed Nyombi.

Magyezi also on Friday last week directed the city clerk to interdict and investigate two city officials over bribery allegations, victimization of vendors, and conflict of interest, thus halting the process of verifying lists and shifting of vendors until investigations are complete.

The vendors were supposed to shift to the market Monday 11th April.

However, the new interim leadership chaired by Emmanuel Muhumuza and the Resident City Commissioner have started the process to re-register all vendors. The process will start on Wednesday.

He says the process will take 14 days and will only be for vendors who were allocated to the Independence park in 2018 to allow the construction of Mbarara Central Market.

He says that the landlords that constructed lockups and stalls at Independence park and missed out on the first registrations will also be registered.

James Mwesigye says the previous three lists that were being followed had been manipulated, noting that the minister has directed his office and the one of intelligence to investigate the lists and come up with a solution.

He says the preliminary investigations show that at least 470 vendors were shifted to the Independence park but the lists that were being followed had more than 600 vendors.

He says the new registration will be fair, noting a vendor will be required to present a coupon and documents of memorandum of understanding that they were given by the ministry of local government and Mbarara city council indicating their stall number.

Agnes Mugumya, one of the vegetable vendors appreciated the new registration noting that this will rid them of non-vendors.

The 21 Billion shillings market that sits on an acre of land, was constructed by the government under the Markets and Agricultural Trade Improvement Programme (MATIP) with support from the African Development Bank (ADB) and is expected to accommodate over 1,000 vendors.

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