Former Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) Secretary General and a celebrated political journalist Haruna Kanabi have blasted National Unity Platform (NUP) deputy Secretary General and also the defeated Butambala district Woman Member of Parliament Aisha Kabanda for celebrating the actions of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) of evicting poor vendors off city streets.
Appearing on Radio Simba’s Gasimbaganne ne bannamawulire talk show, a furious Kanabi told Kabanda to stop playing politics of hypocrisy explaining that during the political campaigns, they were using the said people who are now being evicted from where they work from to look for votes for them after promising them a good life.
“Let us stop such double standards. Aisha, you know very well that these people you’re accusing of making the city dirty and look bad were the people whose relatives/friends were killed because of you. But you’re here telling us how they hindering city development,” Kanabi said.
He revealed that he has travelled to a number of cities but because of good leadership, there are places allocated to vendors to operate their businesses from and many Ugandans when travel in those cities buy items from them that they bring back home for their loved ones and boast of how expensive they are yet in reality, they bought them from vendors because they cannot manage buying them from the shops in those cities.
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He explained to Kabanda who is a former State House staff working under president Museveni before crossing to Bobi Wine’s political party that the reason why people fight for them to get into position of leadership is to help them change their livelihood but instead, they take advantage disadvantage of their being illiterate.
He narrated how those poor people are struggling to even educate their children because most government schools are more expensive than private ones, but instead of Kabanda helping them she is just celebrating their demise.
Kanabi’s argument was supported by his friend John Kakande a former news editor with the government’s newspaper the New Vision who revealed to Kabanda that the actions of evicting vendors is political because many people in the city centre have been threatening President Museveni’s government. He wondered why Kabanda, an experienced politician failed to digest this.
He explained that because this was a security issue, it is the reason why Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) was at the centre of the operation and KCCA Executive Director Hajat Sharif Buzeki was following his instructions.
Kakande claimed that Museveni himself knows deep inside that people in Kampala don’t want him in power even though they eat his money through different government projects of fighting poverty and the only way to silence them is by using force.
He warned people operating businesses in districts of Mukono, Wakiso, Mpigi that the operation will very soon be extended to their areas and they will also be evicted.
Before the operation of evicting vendors from Kampala streets, Gen Muhoozi through his alleged X handle warned that UPDF will take over Kampala city and the operation was not going to be politically partisan.
Veteran journalist Peter Kibazi, the host of Gasimbaganne ne bannamawulire talk show warned that evicting vendors from Kampala streets is going to create more criminality in the country because youths will be deprived of what to do to get money to survive because there is no assurance that the market spaces Buzeki is talking about will accommodate all of them.
Ono Bwino has established that the reason why a number of government officials supported NUP’s Ssalongo Ronald Balimwezo to become Kampala city Lord Mayor is because they were scared of Erias Lukwago’s protest against their move of evicting poor people from the city.
Kampala junior minister Christopher Kabuye Kyofatogabye warned Balimwezo to cooperative with government if he wants to enjoy his office instead of resorting to Lukwago’s leadership style of opposing government projects of modernising the city.
Kampala minister Minsa Kabanda insists that Kampala city needs sanity and organization that is why she supported the move to remove vendors from the streets.
