Different types of bar soaps are on sale in Lira City's roadside market. Photo by Acipa Doreen/TND News.
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Cries of Lira city street vendors: they want city clerk to ‘act’.
By Joyce Aguti
Lira, March 21, 2022: Lira City street (market) vendors are crying loudly to the city clerk to the gazette an area for transacting their businesses.
Oscar Omara who sells bags along Lira-Kitgum road says the main market is congested.
“We cannot afford to pay the stalls and lockups because the capital we use for starting up the business is little,” he said.
A widow and a mother of five children, Judith Akello sells vegetables. She said that the market is characterized by poor sanitation, no light and no water in the main market.
“That’s why we are operating the businesses from outside.”
Akello said that the city clerk and his team should gazette a place for street vendors so that they also continue supporting their families.
Lira city, like other cities and towns, including villages, are seeing a hike in the price of essential commodities.
The vendors’ cries come after receipt of the letter from the office of the city clerk Edward Kiwanuka Gwavu dated March 15, 2022.
The letter is stating that no business shall be transacted on pavements, walkways and streets, in addition, displaying merchandise should be done inside the shop and market by the shop owners/keepers effective March 22, 2022.
There have been numerous complaints from the public and pedestrians who have got involved in accidents since the walkways cannot be accessed because they have been into areas where merchandise is displayed and sold by hawkers and shop owners.
The directive is in line with sections 2A(1), (2) and (3) of the physical planning (Amendment Act 2020) and sections 5(c),7,8,16 and 19 of the trade (Licensing) Act.
