Minah Nalule

The vibrant protest staged by Kampala Capital City Traders -KACITA  to have arcades reopened is finally paying off after the Ministers of Trade and Kampala affairs have summoned arcade owners to an impromptu meeting.

Amelia Kyambadde and Ministers for Kampala, Betty Amongi-Kampala Affairs Minister, and Benny Namugwanya-State Minister for Kampala Capital City Authority have on Tuesday afternoon converged at the Office of the Prime Minister-OPM to forge a way forward on the re-opening of arcades.

On Tuesday morning Police roughed up and detained hundreds of traders at the Kisseka market and around other arcades who had forcefully opened businesses.

The government recently instituted a taskforce on COVID-19 that includes an arcade inspection team representing Kampala Arcades Advocacy to inspect arcades in order to reopen.

By 10th July, the team came up with a list of SOPs and forwarded them in advance to all arcade owners so as to give them time to prepare and put in place what was demanded.

This is after they realized that some arcade owners were failing to implement the Standard Operating Procedures.

The task force, which was split into 4 teams, inspected Royal Plaza, Grand Plaza, City House, Market Plaza, Magoba Arcade, Park Enkadde Plaza, Gazaland, Nabukeera, French Plaza, Total Arcade, Temuseo Plaza and Kizito Plaza. Others were Binco Plaza, Boost House, Giant Plaza, Grand Corner, and Naiga Arcade.

The inspection of arcades that is still ongoing has so far covered 84 arcades out of which 48(57%) were compliant and 35 arcades (43%) were still undergoing.

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 on Monday stated that effective Tuesday 14th July 2020, they would all resume business.

The traders issued a notice to their colleagues indicating that arcades would forcefully resume on the 14th Tuesday 2020 encouraging them to start operation with standard operating procedures as recommended by the Ministry of Health-MOH.

Arcades have been closed since March 2020 when the President Yoweri Museveni directed a national lockdown in fight against the spread of Covid19.