Vendors in newly-occupied Kabale market patching up losses with tarpaulins

According to the chairperson of the fresh food vendors Wilson Agaba, the roofs on the Shs23 billion market are translucent letting in direct sunlight which has dried up the produce.

The section of fresh foods at the new market accounts for 345 stalls and one vendor per stall.

Defects and conflict

Agaba told Daily Monitor that they have resorted to using tarpaulins (locally known as matundubaale) to guard against the sun.

“While we appreciate the Ministry of Local Government and its African Development Bank-funded Markets and Agricultural Trade Improvements Project (MATIP) for constructing Kabale Central Market, the department of fresh foods was poorly designed because the translucent roof intended to provide sufficient light allows in too much sunshine that destroys the fresh foods," he said.

However, this move has created friction between the vendors and the security team that oversees activity at the market.

“We have improvised by putting up tarpaulins to stop the sunshine from destroying the commodities, but this has created a conflict between us and the ICT department officials that operate the CCTV cameras. They claim that we are obstructing the operations of the cameras. We appeal to the government to remove the translucent roofs so that vendors can operate their business smoothly,” Agaba said.

The most affected vendors are those dealing in tomatoes, green pepper, cabbages, carrots, cornflowers, watermelons, oranges, yellow bananas, and fresh beans.

The Mayor of Kabale Municipality Byamugisha Sentaro said they had instructed the contractor, Chongqing International Construction, to fix the challenge of leaking roofs in the fresh foods department among other issues since the company has a year of liability period.

Handover

Kabale Central Market was handed over to the Ministry of Local Government and Kabale Municipal Council on January 11 after almost three years of construction under a Shs23 billion loan from the African Development Bank-funded Markets and Agricultural Trade Improvements Project (MATIP).

Market capacity

The market is at a capacity of 1,022 vendors with 345 stalls for fresh food, 494 lockups for shops, 20 bulk stores, 76 matooke pitches, 20 fish shops, 10 chicken cages, 12 kitchen cooking units, 30 toilets, 12 bathrooms, 10 urinals, CCTV cameras, a police station, a public address system, piped water, electricity connection, a parking yard measuring 4,580 metres squared, and firefighting equipment.