Understanding Street Vendors’ Influence in Kampala Politics
The culture of street vending is etched in the history of the scarcity of essential goods dating back to the early 80s where strategic vendors took advantage of their knowledge of the city, knew where specific goods could be found and personal relationships with the suppliers to make a quick buck off the unsuspecting customers.
Most buyers didn’t know where to find supplies but somehow the vendors (batembeyi) knew where to get them. When the supplies slowly started to appear, the method of work changed to Katimba business. In the absence of shops and arcades, they acted as makeshift open spaces in areas around present-day Royal Complex, Gazaland, Johnston street, Shauri Yako, Nabugabo etc.
Later, there was a shift to containers, that is how container villages emerged. At every stage of transformation, new businesses emerged and those who couldn’t cope found themselves in the cold. From containers, arcades emerged throwing out many on the streets as the arcades replaced Katimba and the old shops.
Arcades become exclusive to those who had organized businesses and could afford rent and taxes. Those who could not afford turned into hawkers (Batembeyi) loosely translated from Kutembeya, a Swahili word meaning walking about or roaming, but closely related to Batembeyi were street vendors, who displayed their merchandise on the streets, either on the floor or makeshift stalls or wheelbarrows.
Influencing politics
It is this group that formed a political block that has influenced the politics of Kampala till now. By sheer numbers, they can intimidate any politician in Kampala to bend to their whims and demands or else you lose that block vote. Several attempts to rid them off the street has been a daunting task, where opportunism and cheap popularity is at the centre stage.
Mayor Christopher Igga lost his seat to Al hajji Ssebaggala because of his strict stance to relocate them to established markets and evening markets on Allen Road and Nakivubo Place. Vendors coined the slogan of Cholera which was used in the mayoral campaign and he lost to Sebaggala.
Since then, Batembeyi politics has been engrained in the body politic of Kampala. Anyone who has tried to clear them from the streets has faced resistance, this explains why the departure of Ms Jenipher Musisi was celebrated by the same group.
Matters have not been helped by the entry of the Boda boda business. Boda-bodas by nature of their business, are too versatile and visible. They have mastered the politics in the city of intimidation and blackmail to whoever threatens their stay. All the mess and confusion in the traffic jams they create and the blatant violation of traffic rules can’t be stemmed by merely sweet talking them into submission, but no politician can take the risk to enforce it.
This explains why Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago has now let loose the street vendors and Boda-boda on the prowl. Ms Jenipher Musisi had achieved a feat which no politician had achieved to clean up the streets and organize Bodaboda stages, though this proved her Armageddon. When politics took centre stage she found herself out of favour of politicians and became a casuality of her own policies.
The creation of street markets on Sundays was an attempt to create a vent for those who cherished street vending but with time it is turning out to be a permanent feature throughout the week due to murky city politics.
The politics of opportunism has not left out the central government. It is widely held that the dismal performance of the ruling party in 2016 general election in Kampala was partly due to Musisi’s insistence on riding the streets off vendors. This explains why Lukwago speaks from both sides of his mouth. Now that Musisi is out of the picture, it will take another hardline executive director to take a firm stand against street vending, but not politicians who keep their eye on the ballot box.
The stellar performance of the NRM in the 2006 and 2011 general elections is attributed to the overt schemes of both Moses Byaruhanga, the principal private secretary to the president and Fred Bamwine, then Deputy RDC in Kampala who played a central role in distributing motorcycles and creating bodaboda Saccos that have now run out of control due to bad politics. Different factions were created due to political expedience and they have ended up being violent rival factions aligned to different political shades, but most prominently the opposition.
