CSOs criticise KCCA's decision to evict street vendors

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have criticised KCCA's decision to evict vendors from streets.

The criticism was made during the civil society organisations' pre- budget dialogue last week.

"There are gaps in the 2022/23 budget, where typical households and subsistence farmers are living in abject poverty. This coupled with Covid-19 pandemic effects has given rise to emergence of vendors in urban cities who are out to look for survival and the government should support them instead of chasing them out of cities," said Mariam Akiror, the coordinator of Action against Hunger Programme.

She said Ugandan livelihoods need to start with improving the nutrition of households and subsistence farmers, through supporting their small scale economic ventures. She also called on government to manage foreign debt stress, saying Uganda currently has reached unmanageable foreign debt stress.

Julius Mukunda, Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) executive director, said government roll out for Covid-19 vaccination countrywide is not clearly explained.

"Government should come out with Covid-19 vaccination plan and tell Ugandans how long the exercise will take to complete vaccinating the entire country," he said.

Ishmael Magona Mweru, the commissioner for budget in the Ministry of Finance said the government is committed to supporting Medium and Small Enterprises (SMEs) to mitigate Covid-19 effects, but insisted that the SMEs which will benefit from the funds are the registered ones.

"As we mobilize more funds, we shall provide additional funding to SMEs," he said.