Many stalls in the new market have been converted to operate as a bar as an alternative after the targeted vendors declined to occupy it citing poor structural design and workmanship.
The new multibillion-government highway market in Lukaya town council,
Kalungu district has been converted into a bar, three years after its
construction.
The market worth 3.75
billion shillings, was constructed with funds from the Ministry of Works and
Transport and Lake Victoria Environment Management Project-LAVEMP, to be
utilized by hundreds of roadside vendors operating in Lukaya town council,
along the Kampala-Masaka highway.
Many stalls in the new market have been converted
to operate as a bar as an alternative after the vendors declined to
occupy it citing poor structural design.
Last month, authorities in Lukaya town council handed over the
market to a local businessman Ismail Kafeero Madugu, to use the facility
for private businesses, from which he will pay rent to the local government.
Kafeero indicates that he has decided to turn part of the
market into a bar, as a viable investment that can attract customers to the facility
that had been left to waste.
According to him, the new market is poorly located almost at
the edge of Lukaya town council in the Lwera area, making it isolated from the main
business centre of the area, something that discourages the would-be customers
from going to it.
He argues that he found it reasonable to turn part of the market
into a bar and an entertainment centre for leisure activities, which he says can
easily attract more customers, something that will lead to boosting the
structure for other businesses.
//Cue in:
“era abali mu maaso…..
Cue out…….oba
gwa nyama.”//
Kafeero adds that he also plans to remodel and improve the
design of some of the stalls and put in place kiosks to attract more vendors to
them.
He anticipates that the many revellers
in the market will lure some roadside from the old private roadside market to occupy
the new facility, hence increasing the local revenue collection.
Charles Tamale, the
Lukaya Town Council Chairperson indicates as leaders, they convinced the private
businessman to take over management of the market, as a way of putting the facility
to use, rather than being left to waste.
He says that they will continuously guide the businessman to put
the facility to appropriate use, especially by allowing vendors of agricultural
produce to occupy some of the stalls in the market.
Tamale explains that despite the huge investment from the government, the town council was not making any revenues from the market as expected;
because it has instead become a burden, which they had to offload by finding any
possible way for putting the market to use.
Lawrence Lubega, one of the vendors who operates a beverage
kiosk in the area indicates that the deserted market had become a hiding ground
for the criminals, saying that utilizing it for any business is going to rid them
of insecurity.
Lubega has challenged the government to always carry out proper feasibility
studies and wide consultations with the concerned stakeholders before investing
huge sums of money into public projects that later turn out to be white
elephants.
