Jinja Central Market was commissioned last year in November by President Museveni and became operational in February. However, barely six months later, the market has developed cracks and is flooding, which has left many traders counting losses.

He wriggles through the mass of bodies standing on either side of the narrow corridor leading to his office. Jinja Mayor, Haji Muhammad Kezaala, cannot freely access his office. He is a besieged man.

The siege has been on since the night of April 3 following a downpour that resulted in flooding of the newly-constructed Shs28b Jinja Central Market. This left many traders counting losses after water leaked into hundreds of stores causing extensive damage to merchandise, mostly stuff such as sugar, rice, maize flour and beans.

“My entire stock was purchased using a loan from a micro finance (institution). I have fallen back on payments. If I don’t sell the few household items I have, I will end up in prison,” says Hajati Masitula Namwebya.

Help needed
Namwebya is one of the many besiegers, mostly female market vendors, who are demanding that Kezaala either gives them financial relief or helps negotiate with the Micro Finance institutions that had lent them working capital.
“I would love to help, but I don’t have the resources to generate the working capital that some of them are asking for. I am just trying to engage the financial institutions,” says Kezaala, with exasperation written all over his face.
The flood came less than three weeks after massive cracks were discovered in parts of the market. The market, which was constructed through the African Development Bank (ADB) under Markets and Agricultural Trade Improvement Programme (MATIP- 1), was commissioned by President Museveni on November 17, 2014. However, it became operational in February.

Within less than five months of occupying it, the vendors have jubilated and wept bitterly in equal measure. If the words of Muzamil Musenero are anything to go by, it is a facility that they love and hate.
“We don’t know whether to laugh or cry or do both. Sometimes it makes us deliriously happy, but then something happens and we end up sad,” Musenero says.

Matters of contention
Kezaala, who claims the town’s officials were denied access to the site during construction, blames everything on Ms Vambeco Enterprise for carrying out substandard work.

“We wanted to supervise this work as local leaders, but we were denied a chance. We weren’t even allowed to step inside during the construction. I am therefore not surprised when I see the magnitude of defects,” he says.

Traders have since complained about the size of the stalls, which they claim are too small, adding that the structure’s drainage system cannot mitigate the effects of flooding.

The resident director of Vambeco in Jinja, Budget Mugabirwe, denies having refused the town’s leadership access to the market during its construction.

“Vambeco never did anything outside the plans, which were approved by Jinja Municipal Council, the Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Works. We were also supervised by Arch Design,” he says.
An April 9 letter from the Acting Permanent Secretary Ministry of Local Government, Patrick Mutabwire, to Arch Design would appear to absolve Vambeco.

“The drainage system was silted hence causing flooding of the market. Furthermore, the drainage of water towards the private developer’s plot were blocked causing backflow and consequently flooding of the market,” the letter reads in part.

Game plan
Jinja Municipal Council Engineer Saidi Muhammad, says much as the blockage was outside the construction site, it had a negative effect on the flow and that the council is working with Ms Birus Services Limited who are developing the adjacent plot to rectify the problem.

Mutabwire’s letter, however, advises Vambeco to redirect water from the entire roof to discharge outside the market and construct new appropriate drainage channels, extend the roof near the open spaces and reinforce or replace the roof drainage gutters.

So why didn’t the contractor do so?
“We built according to the plans that were provided. We neither drew up nor altered the design. If you cared to look, you will notice that this plan and design is similar to other ADB funded markets in other locations and I am sure the contractors there followed the plans they were provided with,” he says.

Where is the problem?
This makes us wonder why the firm is implementing the directives issued by Ministry of Local Government. 
When asked about the same, Mugabirwe says: “Those are new designs, which were never part of the original contract. It is a new piece of work that we have to be paid for.”