An infuriated Kenneth Kizito and other leaders of hawkers in Kampala city has exclusively revealed to this mighty website of how controversial Federation of Uganda Traders Association (FUTA) president John Kabanda and other federation bosses abandoned them in a hotel in Gulu city as they were sealing deal worth millions with Gen Salim Saleh the Chief National Coordinator of the Operation Wealth Creation (OWC).
Kizito narrates that two weeks back, Kabanda approached them with confirmation that Kampala Metropolitan minister Hajjat Minsa Kabanda had secured for them a meeting with Gen Saleh to discuss and solve their financial and personal problems.
He told them that they were supposed to travel to Gen Saleh’s upcountry town Gulu by the next day which was a Monday.
He adds that they decided to go with one hundred people and most of them were leaders of the hawkers around Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso after Kabanda assured them that Gen Saleh wanted to meet not more than one hundred people.
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He told them that those selected were the ones who were going to represent others.
“We reached Gulu city on Monday evening and we were taken to Golden rock hotel where we found many people. Kabanda assured us that everything including eats and drinks in that hotel were free until the date we were going to meet the big man. He told us that Gen Saleh put up that hotel for his visits like them and we really enjoyed,” Kizito says.
He adds that they were supposed to meet Gen Saleh on Wednesday evening but in the morning of that day, Kabanda called them for a meeting where he told them that the meeting was postponed to Friday and that they should get another hotel because they were not supposed to stay in that hotel after the expiration of the first appointment date. In the new hotel, they were supposed to cater for themselves for those two days which they accepted. Some of them made phone calls to their family members and friends in Kampala to send them money through mobile money promising to pay back since they were very sure that they cannot leave Gen Saleh’s place empty handed.
He claims that Kabanda took their photos after telling them that Gen Saleh’s team wanted to see the people going to meet the big man. Kabanda even asked them to go with him to Gen Saleh’s place to feel the place. They walked up to the quarter guard and went back to their respective hotel rooms. They slept very sure that the next day, they were going to meet a person who is going to change their lives completely.
However, they were shocked in the morning of the day on which they were supposed to meet Gen Saleh to check in Kabanda’s room and they were told it was empty. He was nowhere to be seen with Hussein Kato, the FUTA general secretary together with Lwegaba.
The situation worsened when they established that even their phones were switched off.
Kizito said that they waited until the evening and realised that Kabanda and his men had abandoned them even though they had facilitated the entire process including giving them money to compromise the system so as to meet the big man first.
“ Because we did not have money to use that night, we decided to storm Gulu Central Police Station and we met the DPC. After explaining ourselves, he made a phone call to Gen Saleh’s assistant to consult him on whether they were expecting us to meet the General. The assistant confirmed that the General had just finished the meeting with Kabanda and leadership of the hawkers and they were on their way out of the General’s home,” Kizito re-counts.
He adds that when the DPC made a call to Kabanda, and asked him about the group of people claiming that they were with him, he denied knowing them insisting that he only travelled with traders from Busoga and their meeting with the General was done. He asked the DPC to sort them out because he was not responsible for them.
When he went off the phone, the DPC advises them to find ways of getting money back to Kampala since the General was not going to meet them.
He told them that they can sleep at Gulu police as they organise themselves. Shocked, they made panicky phone calls to their people in Kampala asking them to send them money for transport back after accepting that Kabanda’s deal had collapsed.
“ What we wanted from Kabanda is to refund our money which we used to facilitate the deal and our transport, that all,” Kizito said.
When contacted, minister Kabanda admitted that he arranged a meeting between Kabanda, traders from Busoga and General Saleh but denied knowledge about hawkers being part of the team. He wondered why Kabanda didn’t inform her and pleaded with the hawkers to forgive Kabanda as new arrangements are being set for them to meet Gen Saleh.
Kabanda confirmed the allegation explaining that before setting off for Gulu, he told hawkers leadership that the General was not going to meet all of them noting that he only agreed to meet 30 people on behalf of the rest but they refused insisting that they also wanted to meet him.
“What they should know is that I presented their problems to Gen Saleh, he accepted to work on their issue of getting for them a road on Kampala street to work from as it was during Jeniffer Ssemakula Musisi’s era as the city Executive Director,” Kabanda said.
He added that Gen Saleh also denied allegations that he is the one who wants to grab the piece of land owned by Kisekka market traders and even promised to help them develop the place for the traders.
Kabanda accused KACITA leadership of misleading hawkers to turn against him so as to weaken FUTA, boasting that they will defeat them at all cost.
