Four Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have petitioned the Constitutional Court challenging the eviction of street vendors without providing them with a viable alternative for their socio-economic survival. Voice for Labour, Platform for Vendors in Uganda, Uganda Markets and Allied Employees Union, and Uganda Artisans and General Workers Union filed the case on Thursday (September 1) against the Attorney General, who is the legal Government representative.
The petition also challenged some provisions of the Trade (Licensing) Act as amended in 2015 and the Kampala City Council Maintenance of Law and Order Ordinance, 2006.
They also challenged the Kampala City Council (Street Traders) Ordinance, which provides for a requirement of possessing a licence before hawking and vending on the street, but does not provide a clear framework of one acquiring the same and conditions or reasons for being denied the same.
The petitioners also faulted the Attorney General for failing to appoint the appeals authority, a structure meant to entertain appeals from street vendors and hawkers, who maybe unfairly denied licences.
Speaking to the press at Hotel Africana in Kampala after filing the petition, Robinah Kagoye, the Voices for Labour executive director, said 87% of Uganda’s labour force was in the informal sector.
She noted that this labour force contributes to more than 50% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), yet their interests are not recognised and protected under the law.
Uganda’s GDP stood at $40.43b ( about sh154.2 trillion) as of last year, according to data from the World Bank.
“Workers in the informal economy find themselves outside formal arrangements and are often on the edge of high vulnerability of poverty, low earnings, irregular incomes and bad working conditions, yet they are not valued,” Kagoye noted .
The Platform for Vendors in Uganda executive director, Stephen Padde Odaro, said the fundamental rights and freedom of workers in the informal economy should be protected.
“Workers in the informal sector should access safety nets and basic social protection. They have faith that this can be possible through the judicial system in Uganda,” he observed.
Odaro suggested that concerted efforts between the Government and CSOs should be rallied to either skill or re-tool the vendors in order to engage in productive activities.
“As an organisation, we have different job opportunities. But that needs money, yet we do not have the means. We need to have a concerted effort since there are some programmes we should work together with the Government on, to provide better alternatives to what is happening,” he said.
He added that the vendors are getting into the digital workspace, while others are venturing into home-based work. He said others are moving out of hostility in the city to the suburbs.
“We either need a law to streamline and address the challenges, as well as alternative means of livelihood or build on the existing one for the country to do away with street vending,” Odaro stressed.
Challenges
Kagoye said lack of access to justice when arrested is the main challenge affecting street vendors.
“You cannot expect a person vending mangoes worthsh20,000 to afford a lawyer when arrested. When they appear in court, they are told to plead guilty and pay a penalty.
The maximum fine is sh960,000. But even when court asks them to pay a fine of sh500,000, they can’t afford it. So, they have no option but to be remanded,” she explained.
The national vice-chairperson of the Uganda Markets and Allied Employees Union, Ruth Namuyiga, said gender-based violence is another challenge street vendors face.
She condemned how law enforcement officers arrest street vendors, especially women, saying it was inappropriate.