Soroti market vendors split over management

It is almost three years since November 22, 2020, when President Museveni commissioned Soroti Main Market.

The Shs24b facility was constructed in the central business area of Soroti City with support from the African Development Bank (AFDB) through Markets and Agricultural Trade Improvement Program (MATIP).

However, the vendors operating in the facility are in a mix of confusion, conflicts and bickering over disagreements arising from the allocation of lockups. This has led to the formation of two parallel factions pointing fingers at each other.

“We now have a group of vendors that has been branded as opposition because they speak out about the rot in the market. The other group is in bed with city authorities,” Mr Robert Opus, a vendor said.

Mr Opus added that there is connivance to oppress the vendors over their selfish gains.

“In this market, there are people who have allocated themselves more than two lockup spaces, pitches or stalls and they are the so-called untouchables,” he said.

He also questioned why they are forced to clear the recurring accumulated utility bills worth Shs25m for electricity and Shs17m for water that they do not understand.

“We always pay our bills but then, we are wondering why UMEME, which is a prepaid service, meaning pay before use, is having an accrued unpaid bills of Shs25m,” Mr Opus said.

The vendors said the city currently charges She300,000 as the highest monthly rental fee for the larger lockups and Shs80,000 for small lockups, but there is no proper accountability.

Mr Moses Ojinga, another vendor, said the rates that are known to the city are not the same rates that are being levied by people who took up lockups and have become landlords in the government facility, whose immunity they derive on the basis of being National Resistance Movement party members.  

On May 24, the vendors protested after power and water were disconnected for a month over accumulated bills.

Amidst the continued troubles in the market, on July 1, the vendors petitioned the Speaker of Parliament, Ms Anita Among, through the Soroti City Woman MP, Ms Joan Alobo Akiror, seeking her intervention to fix the challenging matters in the market.  Among the issues they cited in the petition is absence of trusted leadership, alleging that the ones in power were voted in 2013 and are now outdated.

They also complained over the alleged mismanagement of the market Sacco funds and concealment of valuable information regarding the financial status of the market Sacco.

They cited issues of interference, connivance and intimidation of vendors who challenge the market leadership and city council authorities over accountability.

The Soroti City mayor, Mr Joshua Edogu, said the concerns of these vendors have been scheduled for settlement next month by the Minister of Local Government, Mr Raphael Magyezi.

But Mr Daniel Kawesi, the Soroti City Clerk, said they allocated spaces to the genuine registered vendors before they advertised the spaces. He added that the number of spaces is not enough to accommodate all the vendors. 

He further said there are three categories of vendors; those who traded in the pitches, those who had lockups and those who had stalls before the demolition of the old market.

“We took the latter as a priority. But the problem is that some of those vendors who want to come into the market leadership are politicising issues,” Mr Kawesi said.

He explained that the recurring bills in the market were derived before entry to the facility and they were not paying and yet the facility needed light for safety purposes.

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