The Civil Division of the High court in Kampala has set January 27th as the date to hear the case in which traders in Kitooro Taxi Park and market are seeking to have their lock up stalls returned to them and compensated for the losses made.
In a hearing notice dated 12 January 2026 seen by this publication, the acting registrar His Worship Kintu Simon Zirintusa noted that the case in which the traders are seeking to regain their stalls with compensation will be heard at 9am on the set date.
“If no appearance is made on your behalf, by yourself/your pleader or someone authorised by law to act for you, the case will be heard in your absence” he said.
However Mr John Mugabi, the Director Action for liberty and Economic development(ALED) while talking to 360Newsug.com said that when some of the perpetrators involved in robbing vendors of their stalls in the case got to know of the hearing, they allegedly fabricated stories about him to military officials in the area who are on the hunt for him.
According to Mugabi, the soldiers seized off his home in Lugonjo on January 19th in an attempted pre-emptive arrest to allegedly stop him from mobilising vendors for a victory procession through Entebbe which he said isn’t true.
“They spent the whole of the night banging the gate, I don’t know why but if they wanted too, they would have scaled over the fence, I contacted the DPC and he told me he had got to know about it but since I am a leader, he would talk to me” he said.
He added, “The DPC contacted me and informed me how they had got information that I wanted to mobilise the traders and youth to for a victory parade, information which I didn’t even know about”.
Mr Mugabi who is also the National Unity Platform (NUP’s) flag bearer for the Entebbe Division B chairperson seat has since gone into hiding and further condemned municipal leaders whose identities he declined to reveal as being the reason behind the military raid on his home with only a few days left to hearing the ruling of the court.
“The ruling will set a precedence that it won’t be easy for people to just play around with vendors issues lightly and ensure their rights are respected and trade fairly” he said.
When contacted, the Kampala metropolitan deputy Police PRO ASP Luke Owoyesigyire confirmed that there was police presence at Mugabi’s home on the said date who found the place locked and went away.
Owoyesigyire further advised Mr Mugabi to come out of hiding and present himself before Entebbe CPS where an investigation is ongoing.
“Let him present himself to police, there is an ongoing investigation there, he will be informed of the case there” he said.
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 recent complaints raised by vendors in both business areas of self-allocation of stalls by councillors.
