The Civil Division of the High court has set May 8th to rule in the long running court battle for rightful ownership of lock ups and stalls, between the Entebbe Municipal council authorities and traders in Entebbe municipality, together with the Equal Opportunities Commission.
Justice Acellam Collins, urged the appellants Entebbe Municipal Council to file their submissions on 17th April while the respondents (traders and Equal Opportunities Commission), will file their submissions on the 24th of April, while he set May 8th to make a ruling in the case.
“We shall mention this case again on 8th of May 2026 at 9, o’clock which is enough time for filing submissions and rejoinders” he said.
The case stems from the Municipal council’s alleged violation of the 2017 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), between Entebbe Municipal Council and the registered vendors of Kitooro Taxi Park that owned lockups and traded in the park before its re-development.
The traders accuse the Municipal of failing to grant first priority to the original market traders to get stalls during the allocation exercise, following the opening of the new Kitooro taxi park in January last year which has a total of 249 shops and cost over Shs 10 billion during construction, that started in 2017 under the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development Programme (USMID).
In a March 3rd, 2025 petition to Mayor Fabrice Rulinda while seeking his intervention in the matter, the traders alleged that the lockups were mainly allocated to the technical staff of Entebbe Municipal Council and those holding political offices, who allegedly registered them in pseudo names, leading to kitooro Taxi Park being left almost desolate.
The traders later filed a case with the Equal Opportunities Commission on April 2rd 2026, which after a lengthy hearing ruled the Municipal deviated from the memorandum of understanding, which disadvantaged the traders by undermining their equal opportunities based on their social and economic standing.
However, the Municipal Council appealed the ruling before the Civil Division of the High court, setting up a case against the Equal opportunities commission and traders.
According to the Director Action for liberty and Economic Development (ALED), that has supported the traders during the hearing, John Mugabi, the ruling will set a precedence that will ensure that traders rights are protected by the institutions, to enable them trade freely and fairly in future to enhance on their livelihoods.
On April 9th last year, the Minister of Local Government Raphael Magyezi, issued a one week ultimatum to Entebbe Municipality local councillors who allegedly allocated themselves lock up shops in the newly opened Kitooro Taxi Park to vacate them for the rightful vendors.
“If they don’t remove themselves, you remove them and give them the bill, beyond that, we shall see what happens. Leaders, councillors and technical officials don’t involve yourselves in these lock-ups, it is conflict of interest for you to be the supervisor and you become the owner or the operator of these things” he said.
Mr Magyezi added, “If you know you’re a councillor and you have a lock up shop here, give it to the town clerk, don’t make a mistake of placing it under another person’s names, pseudo names, your relatives, it isn’t acceptable, hand them over to the town clerk, the allocation committee will reallocate them to other people and you have to refund all the money you extorted from people” he said.
Mr Magyezi made the remarks while chairing a meeting between vendors and municipal council officials over the alleged misallocation of shops in the park, this followed an impromptu visit by the Minister to the Kitooro Market and Kitooro Taxi Park to assess complaints raised by vendors in both business areas of self-allocation of stalls by councillors.
The Entebbe Municipal Council, Equal Opportunities Commission and traders await the May 8thdate to learn their fate.
