Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), in collaboration with the police, bear evicted all side dual carriageway vendors from the Central Alternate District (CBD), offering relocation to govt markets, which vendors bear messily rejected. Earlier this month, KCCA requested vendors to transfer to 2,320 free stalls all the blueprint via city markets, including Usafi, Busaga, Owino, and Wandegeya, by February 19, 2026.
As neatly as, 1,980 stalls were introduced in Entebbe, Mpigi, and Mukono, all interior the Kampala Metropolitan Space. Distributors, then again, brushed apart the provide, announcing the markets lack ample condominium and urging the government to construct a dedicated market if it if truth be told cares about their welfare.
On Friday night, enforcement teams dismantled makeshift stalls and cleared merchandise along major streets. KCCA officers, backed by police and navy, also removed barricades and fencing around police posts, including those at Mini Mark and Nakivubo Road opposite Jesco Building.
By Friday morning, streets previously congested were noticeably clearer. Enforcement teams had cleared areas worship Mutaasa Kafeero Plaza to Namirembe Road, Arua Park, Mini Mark, Kikubo, and Nakivubo. Pedestrians could maybe additionally stroll freely, and journeys that previously took indispensable longer attributable to overcrowding now took proper minutes.
Most vendors had left the streets by Thursday, nonetheless some remained in empty areas, frustrated and in doubt what to attain subsequent. Vehicles with confiscated shares were parked at downtown police posts, having picked up merchandise to be taken to KCCA’s Nakawa stores.
Some side dual carriageway vendors remained optimistic that the operations, worship others within the previous, would soon blow over and so that they’d return to the streets to compose a residing. Brian Ssemanda, a pacesetter of Road Distributors and Walkers Uganda, an association with 500 vendors, instructed Uganda Radio Network they had written to the High Minister, KCCA Executive Director, Lord Mayor, and Kampala Central Division, asking them to allocate safe locations for their firms in self-discipline of evicting them with nowhere to transfer.
Ssemanda talked about, “Evicting vendors to develop a exchange describe isn’t nefarious, nonetheless they haven’t answered our questions. They ignore that side dual carriageway merchandising is the backbone of Kampala’s industry neighborhood. It’s how americans uncover capital to birth up stores. If they’re pushing us to markets they know are paunchy, this eviction will fail worship others.”
Gonzalez Nkalubo, one other dealer, talked about most merchandise on the streets belongs to shop householders who hire vendors and placement up shows. He added that with out evening and Sunday markets, vendors will repeatedly be compelled assist onto the streets.
“We quiz the government uncover our have market, now not send us to Usafi or Owino—they’re already paunchy. Without Sunday and evening markets, this eviction obtained’t work. We’ll wait every week or two and be assist. The very enforcement officers we’ve been paying off steadily is the first to scrutinize us assist; they’re going to’t live to say the tale with out our bribes,” Nkalubo talked about.
Edward Ntale, UTEA Uganda Chairperson, welcomed the evictions, announcing merchants were being suffocated by side dual carriageway vendors who’d occupied the streets, blocking potentialities from having access to stores.
Ntale talked about: “Now there’s a walkway, shows are visible, and potentialities can shop freely.” He expressed insist that authorities couldn’t opt the operation, as in outdated evictions. Authorities bear also removed all gazetted boda boda and taxi stages. Hajji Rashid Ssekindi, chairman of the Federation of Uganda Taxi Operators (UTOF), welcomed the operations, announcing congestion within the city center makes maneuvering now not easy for anybody.
“We’re bored with listening to about Rwanda and Kenya’s orderly streets. Are we actually going to withhold this up? The vendors are proper biding their time, waiting for the authorities to ease off, and we’ll be assist where we started,” Ssekindi talked about. KCCA has tried to sure side dual carriageway vendors since 2014, with earlier efforts in 2007 and 2011. Distributors in most cases return attributable to unhappy market instances, low buyer traffic, high charges, and the need for day-to-day survival. Designated markets in most cases lack the foot traffic that busy streets present.
KCCA spokesperson Daniel Nuwabine talked about this time it could probably maybe be assorted. He talked about eviction of side dual carriageway vendors within the Central Alternate District (CBD) is segment of a broader effort to prepare exchange within the city and your complete Elevated Kampala Metropolitan Space.
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