Kira Municipality legislator Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda has alleged that the ongoing eviction of vendors from streets countrywide is being influenced by President Yoweri Museveni and his son the Chief of Défense Forces (CDF) Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba and even though they want Kampala and other towns to look like the cities of other developed and neighbouring countries, the move is very dangerous to the country’s security.
“ Muhoozi wrote somewhere on social media that he wants Kampala to look like Addis Ababa the Capital city of Ethiopia and I’m told that this is the reason why vendors are being evicted from the streets of Kampala but people surrounding him should be open to him and tell him that before the Ethiopian government evicted poor people from city streets, they first planned where to take them. They did not just wake up and throw them away like dogs,” Ssemujju said.
Ssemujju claimed that because of overstaying in power, Museveni no longer understands the hardships that the poor people are going through to survive as he did in 1986 when he captured power. He added that people believed in him when he told them that he was going to buy his bed from Mulago Kubiiri and was driven in Nissan Laurel cars but now he is living a lavish expensive life with his family with his only worry being how to survive in power.
Semujju disclosed that because President Museveni is protecting his power, him and his son are very scared of young people being in city centres in big numbers without something to keep them busy given that because of hardships they are going through, they can be compromised and they create unrest in the country which can result into their government being overthrown as it was in Libya and Sudan yet they now have all means to push them out of the cities and big towns.
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“Women in my constituency during the campaigns did not want to listen to us the opposition because of the Parish Development Modal (PDM) money which Museveni was giving them, but last week, as I was driving to work, they stopped me crying that their kiosks were demolished by Museveni government, they lost everything including their capital. They apologised to me because I warned them during the campaigns,” Ssemujju said.
He narrated how men are surviving on one bodaboda where by one drives it from morning to noon, another gets it in the evening, another drives it from one to midnight then another one from morning and that’s how they get money to look after their families and a number of them are panicking over the warning they received that they are going to be removed from operating in cities amidst the tough conditions they will place on them.
Ssemujju warned that because the people they are evicting also want to survive, it is the reason why criminality has increased in the suburbs as the chased also look for wand feed their families.
Ssemujju was supported by Richard Baguma a top lobbyist who said that Ugandans are surviving in private sector because government failed to establish enough jobs for all of them insisting that evicting them.
So, evicting them from the streets without giving them an alternative is very dangerous.
He further condemned the introduction of the National Sovereignty Bill 2026 which is targeting Non- Governmental Organization (NGOs) explaining that a number of elites have been surviving on giving consultancy and other services to those civil society organizations.
The NGOs have also created jobs for the youths thus creating a tough law to regulate them is going to scare their funders who will run away to other neighbouring countries like Kenya.
Godfrey Kayemba the outgoing Bukomansimbi South MP encouraged all Ugandans to wake up and resist the coming Sovereignty bill insisting that it is very dangerous and will not only affect politicians and NGOs but even local people with relatives who send them money from abroad.
Ugandans working in international financial institutions like banks, international organizations will also be affected by the said law because they are being categorised as foreign agents and any mistake can send them go to prison.
However, Brandon Kintu of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) insists that whatever the government is doing is for the good of the country and its people noting that there are foreign enemies who have been using money to compromise the country’s peace and security through Ugandans especially politicians and this is the reason why a law was brought to put them in order.
He advised Ugandans evicted from city streets not to listen to opposition but utilise government programmes put in place to fight poverty like PDM, Emyooga on top of going and working from gazetted government markets.
