Following years of long running court battles, 14 traders have regained their lock ups in Entebbe Kitooro Taxi Park, following a structured alternative dispute mediation during the recent High Court submissions.
The case which was before the Civil Division of the High court, presided over by Justice Acellam Collins was set for ruling on May 8th this year, a milestone mutual agreement was successfully reached between the Entebbe Municipal Council authorities, the legal representatives of the traders, and the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).
The mediation which saw rigorous interventions and the firm compliance guidelines issued by the Ministry of Local Government, all self-allocated spaces previously held by municipal technical staff and politicians under pseudonyms were vacated.
Consequently, immediate priority has been extended to the original, verified market vendors, which has seen a total of 14 key pioneer traders successfully reinstated and formally issued official allocation letters for their commercial spaces.
According to the Director Action for liberty and Economic Development (ALED), John Mugabi that supported the traders during the case through the ‘Taasa Omusubuuzi’ loosely translated to “Save the Vendor” campaign, the resettled vendors will now trade freely and fairly in order to enhance their livelihoods.
“ALED’s intervention successfully secured the socioeconomic rights and livelihoods of these marginalized local traders” he said.
Mugabi further noted that the ruling will set a precedence that will ensure that trader’s rights are protected by government officials in the future.
The case stemmed 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 previously accused 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 UGX 10 billion during construction, that started in 2017 under the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development Programme (USMID).
However, a turning point was achieved through combined legal pressure and a firm directive from then Minister of Local Government, Hon. Raphael Magyezi, during a meeting last year with the affected traders and leaders held in the taxi park, during which he ordered all municipal officials to surrender self-allocated properties.
