Hundreds of unemployed youth have descended on the Park Yard, stealing merchandise worth millions of shillings following the late night sealing off the business hub in downtown Kampala.
Eyewitness accounts indicate police had to reinforce after the goons went on rampage at the open market that has been hosting thousands of traders dealing in assorted merchandise.
The closure of Park Yard followed a directive issued last week by Kampala Minister Beti Olive Kamya, a development that irked Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, forcing him together with Kampala MPs Allan Sewanyana and Mubarak Munyagwa to go downtown and empathize with the traders. The trio was arrested but has since vowed to challenge the eviction.
At the time Lukwago said the business hub cannot be closed on ‘the orders of just one person, Beti Kamya’.
‘Park Yard market cannot be declared illegal by just one person, Minister Kamya’, Lukwago vowed.
Interestingly, Ms Kamya had given the traders an ultimatum of 30 days, but barely two weeks into the deadline, government swung into action, sealing off the place that has previously caught fire four times since 2012.
It is not possible to establish when the government and Park Yard vendors parted ways, given that in December 2013 the market caught fire and the traders lost billions worth of property, prompting government to come to the traders’ rescue with a bailout of Shs 1 billion.
