Minah Nalule
City arcade traders have on Tuesday destroyed a police pickup truck with police officers who had deployed heavily at the city center to block them from accessing their work premises.
The traders stationed around Kisseka Market at the city center started pelting stones at the windscreen of the vehicle that had come to effect arrests.
However, this did not stop the Police officers from flooding arcades around the City center, roughing up defiant traders and taking them into Police detention.
Military, Police, and Local Defense Unit -LDU’s personnel deployed near several arcades to block the traders from resuming work
Traders operating in arcades on Monday committed to reopening their business despite a directive from the government to keep them closed till further notice.
The traders under their body Kampala City Traders Association -KACITA stated in a letter distributed to arcade vendors that effective Tuesday 14th July 2020, they would forcefully resume business but with standard operating procedures as recommended by the Ministry of Health-MOH.
This followed a 5-day ultimatum given to the government by the traders on Wednesday last week to reopen arcades or they stage a massive protest at Kampala city center.
Most of the traders didn’t disappoint on Tuesday morning as most of them showed up as early as 6 am and opened businesses.
But it was not long before police officers deployed heavily and started arresting the traders.
The traders claim it has been 4 months since arcades were shut down in March 2020 and they have families to fend for and bills to pay like rent among others.
They also allege that the government is being discriminatory by having shopping malls and Kikuubo that attracts crowds open yet they remain shut.
Last week, the minister for Kampala Betty Amongi said that arcades would reopen but with standard operating procedures.
