KCCA clears the unwashed off roads ahead of summits

On October 31, law enforcement officers from Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) arrested nine vendors and broke down their makeshift business premises to clear the roads for beautification ahead of two summits next month.

The two big meets are the Non-Aligned Movement and the G77+China summits due to run back-to-back and Commonwealth Resort Munyonyo from January 15, 2025.  Organisers expect some 5,000 foreign guests. But a month before their arrival, City Hall is cracking the whip on poorer dwellers, chasing them away from public sight and confiscating their merchandise.

Vendors near Kansanga market are among those affected as are individuals running bars on porches of buildings whose frontage is close to the road.

Mr Abdul Rashid Bengo, the market administrator, said 90 vendors from diverse locations, including Entebbe highway which connects Entebbe International Airport from where arriving dignitaries will be chauffeured from, lost property worth Shs40m-Shs50m that fateful day.

Among them is Christine Nangozi, who was operating a grocery store she valued at around Shs10m.

On that fateful day, she said, KCCA enforcement officers without any prior notification ransacked her grocery store.

“They were too rude and started destroying my properties while others grabbed [some of the merchandise] to load onto their waiting pick-up trucks. They later grabbed my [mobile] phone [handset] and attempted to arrest me, yet I had a valid trading licence,” she said.

Now she ekes a living by vending vegetables and fruits. Between sobs, she told this newspaper, “I don’t think I will recover from that shock. Those people are more of thugs, my kiosk was destroyed beyond recognition.”

The crackdown has been on since September as part of city-wide facelift to welcome guests to the international events.

Daniel Nuweabine, the head of communication for NAM Summit at KCCA, told a press conference ahead of the demolition exercise that slums dwellings in Soya-Bunga would be knocked down as “cleaning” of the city ahead of the summits progresses.

“It may appear simple to the authorities, but we the local people are really suffering; businesses stalled, many youths were rendered unemployed, people were arrested, losing their jobs prompted them to run back to their villages, leaving the houses they used to rent empty. The problem is very big when you come down on ground,” said Ms Mary Mukasa, the chairperson of Women Council in Maso-ana Village in Kansanga.

Our fact-finding visits showed vendors and residents were broadly affected, from Kansanga, Bunga, Soya, Buziga to Kabalaga, which straddle along the route to the planned convention venue and other hotels accredited to accommodate the delegates.

In Kansanga trading centre, for example, over 100 chapati and 50 mobile money kiosks and grocery stores have been razed by KCCA enforcers, similar to what has happened in Kampala’s Buziga, Kabalagala, Bunga and Kibuli outskirts.

Ms Mukasa said the operations have left dwellers destitute. 

“We are suffering because the KCCA has even gone for people who are not living in the urban areas,” she said.

Residents alleged that crackdown was executed without prior warning, catching them unawares, a claim we could not independently verify as KCCA officials were not readily available.

However, speaking at the NAM and G-77 summits media breakfast last month, KCCA Executive Director Dorothy Kisaka said that they notified affected individuals in time.

“We have issued notices to residents that there will be some inconveniences as we deal with the works, but are encouraging them to bear with us,” she said.

City Hall issued a written directive, requiring home and business owners to plaster a fresh coat of paint on their buildings and announced its staff would conduct door-to-door visits to ascertain compliance, including of waste collection and disposal.