Mbale City Public Relations Boss, Kutosi Fires Back: Vendors Holding the Keys — and the Cash — as Central Market Trails Far Behind

 I appreciate the concerns of Mbale Central Market vendors regards revised rates and other concerns.

To biginners Mbale Central Market was in the first phase of all MATIP markets in the Country and one of the biggest  but in terms of revenue generation it is the lowest.

One of the reasons for this poor revenue generation is because, market vendors have assumed the role of market administration which is the role of the City.

As I write this the keys to gates of the market are in the hands of the vendors not the market administrators appointed by the City. Last month of July the council only realized 3million shillings in revenue from the whole market while other MATIP markets like Gulu market realized 100million. The Mbale Central Market vendors leadership were facilitated for benchmarking to Gulu market by the City. It was anticipated that after coming back , they would use that experience to improve performance of Mbale Central Market.

When you compare what comes out of the market and the expected services required, you wonder how a market that is supposed to be self sustaining can be managed when most of the expected revenue is mismanaged by the vendors themselves.

Take the example of market toilets, who manages them and where does the money go?

Where does the money for gate collections go? Who manages gate collections?

Back to the revised rates, can anyone here ask lock up owners on Cathedral Avenue pay in terms of rent per month. For starters, it is not below 500,000/= but the City only gets 80,000/=. The revised rates puts a lock up at 200,000/= going by market value. Try to find out how much a shop pays on the opposite side of the market on Cathedral Avenue?

In short the City could have failed in one way or the other on its part but the main cause of poor performance is caused by some purported vendors' leaders in the market.

When Government decided to allocate lock ups and space to active market vendors, a number of issues also came up but MoLG has again sent staff to work together with City administration together with vendors to streamline issues in the market.

Have a blessed weekend.

The City is open for any clarity if required.

Kutosi James Natsami.

Senior Public Relations Officer,

Mbale City.