The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga has Wednesday ordered the Minister for Kampala Affairs Beti Olive Kamya to present a statement explaining where the displaced Park Yard market vendors were relocated to.
This stemmed from the heated debate that ensued after the minister presented a statement on the eviction from the market to pave way for redevelopment of the area.
In her statement before Parliament, Kamya said the Park Yard market was a property of Nakivubo War Memorial Stadium and was designated as a parking lot for the stadium.
Kamya explained that the land was encroached on by vendors but efforts to regain the space by the Nakivubo board had failed for over 20 years, due to political interference.
“This is a 20 year story of the owners trying to repossess their premises and have been haggling and no decision taken. If a government can haggle with illegal vendors for 20 years to develop one acre of land, surely what else will they do?” Kamya wondered.
The justification didn’t go well with the legislators from both sides who noted that this would not amount to the ill-treatment of the tax payers without prior plans of relocation.
The Speaker ruled that there is need to fight for Ugandans and that the government cannot continue treating citizens like rubbish because it is always the poor that are displaced.
Kadaga made the pronouncement after Kampala Central MP Muhammad Nsereko appealed to the House to task the minister to come back with a list of all the vendors and where they were re-located.