The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kalungu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Raphael Magyezi, the Minister of Local Government has finally okayed the utilization of the new market structure in Lukaya town council, Kalungu district, ten years after its construction commenced.
In 2011, the Ministry of Works and Transport using a donation of 1.9 billion Shillings from the Lake Victoria Environment Management Project-LAVEMP, undertook to construct a permanent market in Lukaya town council for hundreds of roadside vendors who operate from the area.
The market project had however remained incomplete and unutilized for the last ten years due to errors in structural designs and alleged misallocation of resources which led to vendors rejecting it citing shoddy work.
Magyezi has instructed the leadership of Lukaya town council to make arrangements of relocating the vendors into the market after it was reconstructed up to the standard.
Government injected an extra cost of 2 billion shillings into the same project to correct the abnormalities and according to Magyezi, the market can now be utilized by the targeted vendors who have all along been operating by the roadside.
The new Lukaya market which is comprised of 64 stalls and 25 lockups that will be occupied by traders dealing in foodstuffs that include vegetables, irish and sweet potatoes, cassava and both fresh and dried fish largely targets customers in motor vehicles traveling on the Kampala-Masaka-Mbarara highway.
Monica Nakijoba and Alex Kiyaga, some of the vendors operating on Kampala-Masaka highway in Lwera swamp indicate that the opening of the new market is long overdue saying they have long been yarning to secure an organized place where they can operate from.
According to Nakijoba, they have for so long been operating by the roadside in the open where they have been at risk of being knocked by speeding vehicles as they pursue the customers.
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