In a one-roomed house in the slums of Namuwongo in an area fondly known as Soweto, Lillian Achiro sits with teary eyes wondering how she will feed her seven children on International Women’s day. Pumpkin leaves are all that is available as a sauce without food in the picture yet.
Achiro, 43, used to earn a living on the streets of Kampala Capital City where she sold fruits she sourced from Nakasero market. Earning at least Shillings 20,000 on a daily basis, Achiro was struggling but led a fairly good life as she could feed her children, clear rent and school fees for three of her older children.
The family lived a simple but happy life and there was hope for better days to come. Achiro says all the happy days disappeared in the wind when KCCA intensified operations to get rid of street vendors and hawkers in January this year.
KCCA ordered the vendors in late 2021 to leave the streets peacefully and take up stalls in nearby city markets. The smart city campaign intensified in January 2022 with police, the army and KCCA law enforcement officers forcing vendors off the streets.
The operations didn’t spare Achiro who operated near Mukwano arcade. Achiro now operates along Kafumbe Mukasa road in the evening amidst fear of being arrested by law enforcement officers who patrol the streets to ensure there are no vendors.
They arrest vendors and confiscate the merchandise of those found on the streets. More than thrice, Achiro’s merchandise has been confiscated, affecting her capital. The trick on the street is, when vendors sight law enforcement officers, they quickly pack their merchandise and flee.
But Achiro says, for more than two years, she has had chest pain, which makes it difficult for her to carry heavy stuff. When law enforcers appear abruptly, she flees without her merchandise. Achiro says sometimes she has failed to get food for her children and her friends have rescued the situation.
Achiro has been a street vendor for more than eight years caring for her children solely after her husband was taken back to Pader District after suffering a stroke. In April 2020, Achiro was arrested in Kampala, charged and erroneously imprisoned for defying Presidential directives on the management of coronavirus disease at the beginning of April.
The President had restricted transport, directed people to stay home and instituted the night-time curfew. She was released in May 2020 after stories published about the struggles of her children to survive without her went viral attracting the attention of human rights activists who secured her freedom through the court.
Upon her return, Achiro resumed work and had stabilized when KCCA started its operations this year. She can no longer make more than Shillings 5000 a day, making it hard to feed her children, pay school fees and rent for the house.
In 2020, when we first visited Achiro’s family, they lived in a small one-roomed house rented at Shillings 80,000. They have since shifted to another 7×7 ft one-roomed house rented at 70,000 Shillings after her previous landlord increased rent to Shillings 90,000. She left the house in January 2022 at a time when operations in Kampala were in high gear.
During the lockdown, Achiro’s children sought informal employment to provide an extra income for the family. Her elder son, Brian Opio worked as a porter at construction sites where he earned at least Shillings 5000 daily.
However, when schools re-opened in January 2022, he stopped working to return to school. Opio, a primary six pupil at Murchison Bay Primary School in Luzira is worried he might be dismissed from school for failure to clear school fees of 60,000 Shillings.
Achiro’s 17-year-old daughter, Susan Akello, a senior three student at Pride View Secondary School has been at home for two weeks having been dismissed for failure to clear school fees.
Her school awarded her a partial bursary, requiring her to pay 250,000 Shillings out of the Shillings 350,000 for school fees. Akello previously worked at a nearby shop for Shillings 90,000 a month but surrendered her job to new applicants when school resumed. She looks up to her mother, entirely.
Achiro says that she can care for her family if she got a stable place to work. She wants to secure a stall in Nakasero market where she says business is booming. But, she explains that she needs at least Shillings 70,000 to secure a stall and at least Shillings 100,000 to buy merchandise.
Dr. Fred Muhumuza, a development economist says that street vendors should not be removed from the city but rather regulated. He says city authorities should make policies based on the needs of the people rather than adopt policies that do not seem to address the needs of society, which include employment.
He suggests that street vendors be organised to operate at specific times and places and be taxed.
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