Police in Kabale forcefully disperses meeting of vendors who missed out on stalls in new market

Police in Kabale led by the District Police Commander, Abel Ruganza, has stormed the offices of Central division Kabale Municipality where more than a hundred vendors who were not allocated space in the new Kabale Central Market had a meeting with the Central Division Chairperson, Sam Arineitwe.

“The vendors meeting with the Central Division chairperson was uncalled for as the police predicted it would result into conflict with the other authorities. The vendors were misled,” Rugaza, the DPC Kabale, said.

He further asked the vendors to take the right channels so as to be allocated in the new Kabale Central Market saying that investigations on the faulty issues in the market are already being handled.

Amidst the tight security, vendors were forced to vacate the central division council hall where they were conducting their meeting from.

Although these say that their main purpose for the meeting with the Central division Chairperson was to request him to present their issue to the line authorities.

They also say that the temporarily market at Kigongi near the Kabale Police Barracks is being demolished leaving them with no where to work from after being denied relocation to the new market.

These vendors blame the municipality and ministry of local government for neglecting them at this time of the allocation of stalls and lockups. They accuse the authorities of allocating the space to non-vendors and masqueraders.

The division chairperson Sam Arineitwe says that the major purpose of the meeting was to hear issues and complaints of the legit vendors who where not relocated back to the new market.

He adds that they where looking forward to formally write to the municipality mayor to clear out their concerns in case of any faulty issues.

Arineitwe further says that this act of police storming his office forced him to call the minister of Local Government Raphael Magezi and addressed the issue of the legit vendors being left out in the process of relocation to the new Kabale Central Market.

The Mayor Kabale Municipality Sentaro Byamugisha describes the meeting held by the division chairperson Sam Arineitwe as null and void because it was not passed by the municipality defence committee saying that it’s used as a strategy for individuals political gains.

He appealed to the vendors to take advantage of the complaints committee of the municipality and the Appeals Commitee of local government ministry to present their issues to have a possible solution.

When asked about the process of distribution of space in the new market, Sentaro says that they are going to do a post-relocation review and assessment to weed out the faulty issues that where made especially to those who got more than one lock.

After the demolition of the temporary market in Kigongi at the Kabale Police Barracks, more than 200 vendors have been left with no other option of where to work from