The market was purchased from one Umar Ssekamate as a way of increasing the authority’s revenue and relocate vendors who roaming the streets to a more centralized place.

Jennifer Musisi meeting some of the vendors at the market.

However, Members of Parliament sitting in the committee chaired by Col. Fred Mwesige while discussing the matter noted that KCCA had not put the money in good use. They said most building in the market are dilapidated with most vendors failing to operate their business there sighting a high cost of operations in doing business there.

Suzan Amero,the committee’s  vice chairperson and also woman MP Amuria district, said they considering summoning City Director of Planning, the Lord Mayor,Erias Lukwago, former minsters for Kampala, Frank Tumwebaze and the KCCA’s Executive Director, Jennifer Musisi to come and explain to members were the market is not operational to the expected standards.

The MPS are also concerned on why the city authority enforcement officers continue to harass and confiscate properties of vendors on the streets.

Simeo Nsubuga, the Kasanda South MP in Mubende district questioned why there are uncoordinated finance reports from KCCA saying the authority has indicated dishonesty in the procuring process of this market.

Rubaga North MP Moses Kasibante also wondered why KCCA would invest
this huge amount of money to purchase such a market yet there are other markets located at the outskirts of Kampala which require less resources for development.

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The signing of the Memorandum follows a three days conference on engaging local Governments for national transformation. The conference organized by Uganda Christian Action Network together with the Global Leadership Summit, was attended by political and the technical officers of Mbarara district and Mbarara Municipality. The conference was under the theme ‘Engaging Local Governments for National Transformation’.

In the Memorandum, the parties undertook to create favorable conditions to build interactions in the fields of staff attachments, bench marking by politicians, information technology, revenue collection, law enforcement, public cooperation among others.

The Prime Minister commended the Uganda Christian Action Network, under Bishop Joshua Lwere for the initiative of bringing together local Government leaders, for purposes of training to strengthen their performance capacity. ‘I salute Bishop Lwere for this unique innovation. This is the first programme of its kind to be organized by an ordinary person’, Rugunda said.

In a communique issued at the end of the conference, the Local Government Leaders committed themselves to promote Team work, Good work ethics, Promote Transparency, Accountability and Servant Leadership. The function was attended by the Minister for the Presidency Frank Tumwebaze and the Executive Director KCCA Jennifer Musisi Semakula.

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The Uganda Member of Parliament for Kibaale County in Kamwenge district Frank Mwebaze has urged the Uganda government to inject more funds in agricultural value addition so that rural farmers standards can be uplifted inform of increased household incomes from sale of agricultural produce.

Tumwebaze who is also the former Chairman of Uganda National Farmer’s Association told journalists at Uganda Parliament that more government investments in agricultural extension will lead to more food production which pushes the agricultural prices down therefore causing losses to farmers.

Frank Tumwebaze

Uganda government continues to invest billions of shillings in agricultural extension through the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS).

Analysts believe that increased investments in agricultural processing will in addition to more incomes to rural farmers also help in the preservation of food which helps improve food security.

Agriculture remains one of Uganda’s major economic sectors employing over 80 percent of the population. However, draught, diseases affecting crops and animals, corruption in NAADS, poor road networks, and poor farming methods among others has not helped Uganda farmers reap big from farming.

To transform the Uganda agricultural sector, Uganda finance minister Syda Bumba recently allocated funds to set up agricultural processing plants in every sub county in the country during the reading of the 2010/11 Uganda National budget.

Also see stories related to agriculture in Uganda

Zacharia Tiberindwa, Ultimate Media

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