Traders and vendors of Owino park yard market woke up today to the shocking realization that their market had been cordoned off by Uganda Police forces. These traders had previously been given 30 days to vacate the land that the market sat on so that redevelopment of Nakivubo Stadium would commence, however 10 days before the eviction deadline elapsed they found themselves dispossessed of this land with much of their property confiscated.
The traders were ordered on the 7th February by the Minister for Kampala Hon. Beti Olive Kamya to vacate the premises after an agreement was reached between City Businessman Ham Kiggundu of Ham Enterprise limited and the trustees of the Nakivubo War Memorial stadium to redevelop the Stadium.
This eviction came only a week after the deputy Lord Mayor for Kampala Hon. Sarah Kanyike stayed the eviction of the traders until KCCA found a suitable piece of land where they would be transferred, this stay of eviction pronounced after the vendors petitioned Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago over the dispute.
The parkyard traders informed KCCA that they had plans to redevelop the property themselves since they had large number of occupants from whom funds could be raised for redevelopment however this did little to help their situation since they were informed by the Kampala Deputy Lord Mayor Hon. Sarah Kanyike that the land in dispute belonged to the Nakivubo War Memorial trust and not to the Kampala City Council Authority.
Eviction in the park yard market has come as a serious blow to the traders because many of them had taken out bank loans for the products they had in their stalls, a move that is going to leave them highly indebted. This eviction will also leave over 10,000 traders jobless at a time when the Ugandan economy is reported to be slowing down, leaving a large number of these traders financially vulnerable since for many of them the market was their only source of income.
