Vendors have decried the sorry state of the Mbale central market. The roofs of the market leak and the drainage channels are blocked, which leads to flooding whenever it rains. It is also a haven of uncollected garbage.
Some parts of the market have developed cracks especially in areas where a telecom company erected a mast on top of the market.
The market which was commissioned in 2014 has a total of 3,760 vendors who operate different types of businesses like produce, fishery, butchers, and boutiques among others. Several stalls and lockups have been deserted by the vendors and others have never been occupied from the time the market was commissioned.
In 2014, a sh26.9b market was commissioned by President Yoweri Museveni with an assurance that the new market would alleviate vendors and the business community from poverty, improve their lively hood and also improve on the local revenue base of the then Mbale Municipality.
It is almost 9 years since the Mbale Central market started operating.
The Mbale Central Market is one of the first seven markets government built under the Markets and Agricultural Trade Improvement Programme – MATIP harboring over 3000 vendors.
The facility has among others has stalls, a day care center, a police station, pharmacies, a car park, loading and offloading bays, stalls, paved pitches and kiosks. The market was constructed using a loan from the African development bank.
Muhammad Mwanje, the Secretary for Research and Information at the Market says whenever its rains, water floods the market every time it rains.
Mwanie says that the traders are counting losses as customers don’t buy from them because of the poor sanitation in the area adding that whenever it rains business comes to a standstill.
Robert Wambende, a vendor says that the poor state of the market has pushed away their customers. Wambende who has worked in the Mbale central market since the late 1980s said that the disorder in the market has made it difficult for him to earn 10000 shillings a day.
“The problem we have got in this market is darkness, power is always on and off something that has scared customers from the market making hard for us to work especially us who are at the extreme end of the market” he said.
Ismail Katemba, another vendor who represents the elderly says that the condition of the market worsens each passing day. He said that the as vendors they have not realized the motive for the establishment of the market yet the city authorities keep soliciting taxes from them and they there are no sales.
“We have many challenges in this market, it floods, we suffer with power shortages. We as vendors have never realized the benefits of this market” he said.
Ambrose Ochen, the Mbale City Clerk said that the city authorities are trying to streamline the operations of the market. He said that there is improvement in the local revenue collections from the 1 million in the last financial years to at least now over 5 million although he says this still low noting that the market is cable of giving them over shillings 300 million per year.
Ochienge says that part of the money that is collected from the market is supposed to work on major renovations and rehabilitation of the market.
“There is a lot of under collections in the market, as we talk now we collect 5 million which may not be enough to meet the costs like paying utilities, we came up with a social pact where we have committed ourselves to better services at the market” Ambrose said.
Ambrose said that the city has come up with a strategy to cause order around the town that will ensure all vendors operating on the streets enter and begin working from the market.
As a city we have come up with a strategy on how to create order, I want to advise all vendors operating on the streets to voluntarily enter the market before follow up with, the government invested a lot of money in that money so it should be utilized by our people” he notes.
Mbale Central Market is mainly a collection point for foodstuffs from the districts of Bududa, Mbale, Kapchorwa, Sirinko, Butaleja. The market was constructed using a loan from the African development bank.