Vendors evicted from Mulungu landing site

The increased water levels in Lake Victoria left the market submerged, posing a health challenge to traders.

FLOODS  HEALTH

KAMPALA - The Police used teargas to disperse vendors and other traders at Mulungu landing site and market in Munyonyo on Lake Victoria after they failed to evacuate the place following an eviction letter earlier served to them.

On April 23, Buganda Land Board (BLB) was issued with a notice of closure from Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) after the market failed on sanitation measures.

The notice stated: “The market premises are flooded with water from Lake Victoria, which was likely to cause a cholera outbreak and other related diarrhea diseases to the occupants.”

The notice further called for immediate eviction of the vendors for their own safety.

Mukasa Nabawesi, the chairperson in Mulungu market, said: “I was called early in the morning informing me on how the Police had sealed off the market and the landing site.”

“When I asked the reason for the sealing off of the market and the landing site, they informed me that we had been relocated to another place which they say we had refused to go to.

“We were not given any place to relocate to. If we were given a place to relocate to, why couldn’t we move there,” Nabawesi said.

The demolition exercise did not wait for some of the traders who had moved to their homes following the lockdown.