The leadership of traders under Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) last evening resolved to resume normal businesses and have their members open up shops following a two-day strike that started on Wednesday. The latest strike was triggered by an abrupt cancellation of their meeting with president Museveni.
This follows a meeting with the traders’ leadership that was chaired by the Prime Minister Robina Nabbanja, assuring them that the President was considering rescheduling their meeting at as soon as possible.
The meeting was attended by among others, Kampala Minister Minsa Kabanda, Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka and section of land lords and arcade owners.
In a letter dated 1st August 2024 to KACITA Chairperson Thadeus Musoke, Nabbanja asks traders to continue carrying out their business as they wait for an official communication from the President regarding the pending meeting.
The letter is copied to the President and various government Ministries, Departments and Agencies including the Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Attorney General, Minister for Kampala City and Metropolitan Affairs, State minister for Housing, Kampala Capital City Authority executive director (KCCA), and to all City Land Lords.
President Museveni had earlier scheduled the meeting for July 31st 2024 as a follow up to the one held on April 7th at Kololo Independence Grounds but unfortunately this never took place.
Addressing the media last evening, Musoke, outlines some of the resolutions of the meeting.
“Basing on several engagement, consultation and the intervention of the President and instructions he issued to different agencies and even the views we have heard from sectoral leaders and structures it is obvious that every trader is willing start to work because all these traders thousands, so I appeal to our traders let us put on hold on the demonstration and resume operation as normal”, he said.
Musoke also accused the Minister for Kampala Kabuye Kyofatogabye of blowing the situation out of proportion, a claim he denies.
A section of striking traders yesterday lashed out at the minister over remarks directing them to go back to villages and grow pineapples and coffee, instead of disturbing the government with strikes. The angry traders who described the minister’s remarks as dismissive and arrogant, responded by calling him a beggar, who like his colleagues kneel before the president for perks and bailouts.
“What brought all the demonstration was the way the ministry of on Kampala communicated, by sending us a voice note as if she was communicating to her boyfriend, yet the trading community is one of the major stakeholder in the country’s economy, so we thought the county is taking us for granted”, he said.
The traders want to meet the president to get the government’s final stance on their demands, including temporary suspension of implementation of the Electronic Fiscal Receipting System (EFRIS) by Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) for atleast one year.