Isaac Mufumba
3 December 2007
Jinja — ON OCTOBER 24, a council debate on a proposal to sublease Jinja Central Market to the vendors was prematurely ended on the orders of former RDC, Mr Muhwezi Mugisha.
"I have just received a call right now asking me to come to this meeting and request you to delay your decision to sub-lease the market until further communication from the Office of the President," he declared.
The RDC explained that leasing the market would amount to passing a vote of no confidence in the President for failure to honour a pledge to redevelop it. With that, the redevelopment plans were for the umpteenth time shelved in the name of political expediency.
Growth
The market was started in the 1940s, but it was not until the 1970s that it grew - ironically thriving from the hardships that followed the government's expulsion of Asians, some of them Ugandan citizens, and the subsequent nationalisation of their enterprises.
Goods were concealed under beds as traders struggled to evade the Economic Crimes Tribunal. This gave rise to "Bbiya or Sukari ow'Ekitanda" (beer or sugar sold in bedrooms).
In the market, smuggled goods were either hidden under the stalls or in nearby stores for sale to 'known' people. Strangers could purchase through middlemen. Supermarkets could not work under such circumstances. They lost out to the market.
Fires & attempts at reconstruction
The market which has been hit by three major fires has seen three futile attempts at redevelopment.
The first fire occurred in July 1985 after the fall of the Obote II government. UNLA soldiers looted the market before setting part of it alight. Hundreds of stalls and goods worth billions were lost, but it was not until 1992 that the Mayor, Mr Steven Kanobe Kyalya, contracted Etats Uganda Limited to renovate it.
In November 2001, the Mayor, Mr Stephen Nsubuga Bewayo proposed to redevelop it into a modern complex at a cost of Shs4.2 billion.
Mr Bewayo says it was meant to be a joint venture between Cairo International Bank and the vendors.
The bank was to provide 70% of the project cost while the vendors were to contribute 30%.
The vendors were to in return get a 30year lease for their lock-ups, while the bank was meant to recoup its investment from market dues and market rent.
Though Mr Bewayo was out of office by April 14, 2002 when the second major fire gutted the market destroying about 200 stalls and merchandise worth an estimated Shs2 billion, his idea remained alive.
It was not until June 28, 2002, when President Yoweri Museveni pledged to reconstruct the market that the idea 'died'.
Politics
After the third fire of June 23, 2003, which destroyed more stalls and goods worth an estimated Shs400 million, some leaders tried, but failed to get the President to honour his pledge.
Jinja East MP, Igeme Nabeta, in whose constituency the market is located, perhaps aware of the political implications of such failure, contacted Sustainable Human Development (SHD), an American Financial Institution.
The Americans proposed a four storeyd complex on terms similar to what Cairo Bank had offered in 2001.
However, the council needed to get written approval of the project from the Ministry of Local Government and the Office of the Prime Minister.
Sources here revealed that no sooner had SHD come up with this position than politics began.
NRM officials here, afraid that the President would appear like a liar ahead of the 2006 elections, opted to ignore the fact that SHD's proposal and not government funding, would give vendors a chance to co-own the market.
Council sources revealed that Acting Town Clerk, Jofram Waidhuba, declined to write the letter after he was 'informed' of the seriousness of its implications for him and the President.
Mr Nabeta claims no knowledge of such machinations, but acknowledges that it was in the run up to the elections that the plans were shelved.
It is nevertheless believed that it was partly due to the market factor that Mr David Wakudumira suffered defeat, in the Mayoral election race, while Mr Nabeta survived narrowly.
Will it ever be Redeveloped?
As 2007 draws to a close, the same political considerations are back at play casting doubt over plans to redevelop it.
The current Mayor, Mr Mohammed Baswari Kezaala thinks that some people are out to frustrate him and his plans for the vendors.
"I believe these officers want to fail my plan to help get these vendors to find money to fund the redevelopment of the market," he says.
However Mr Nabeta is optimistic. He says the government has given its commitment to provide Shs7 billion in next year's budget to develop the market to modern standards.
The people of Jinja, who want their market to be developed, are waiting to see whether this will happen.
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