Thadeus Musoke Nagenda the chairperson of Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) has declared that his association will not join the newly formed federation citing fraud and extortion.
Musoke made the statements few weeks after controversial businessman John Kabanda of the Kampala New Generation Traders Association led a team of city traders to form a Federation named the Federation of Uganda Trade Association (FUTA ) and he was appointed the chairperson deputized by his friend Godfrey Katongole while Moses Lwegaba was appointed as publicity secretary.
Former State minister for Trade Harriet Ntabazi was appointed as the patron of their federation which is set to open countrywide offices to assist traders to solve their problems.
During the course of investigating this story, theGrapevine established that in Kampala city, there are more than seven traders associations and these are: Katukazane Shoe Dealers which brings together all traders dealing in shoes, Kampala Arcaders Advocacy Forum (KAFO), United Arcaders Traders Entrepreneurs Association (UATEA), Kampala New Generation Traders Association, Kampala Traders Association KATA), KACITA, Uganda Needy and Squatters Association, Kikuubo Business Community.
According to Kabanda, all the said associations are supposed to be under his federation.
However, Musoke’s KACITA, KAFO, UETEA declined to join the association because they did not participate in its formation.
Musoke said that he cannot lead KACITA to join the new federation well knowing that its leader Kabanda is not a trader in Kampala city.
He challenged him to prove by showing where his shop is located.
He further explained that Kabanda is a known event and music promoter and he cannot be entrusted with traders’ issues to be handled with his team. Traders reveals to Grapevine that fellow members formed associations and federations to use it to seal deals with tycoons who are landlords owning city arcades and buildings where they operate from.
“Their role is to incite us to demonstrate against the poor conditions we are operating from including paying high rent, paying money for using toilets, high taxes and when we placed the landlords on the wall by closing our shops, they invite our leaders in a closed door meetings, bribed them and came back when their tongues are changed speaking in different page with us, pleading with us to open our shops as negotiations proceeds and when you open nothing yielded,” a trader said.
However Musoke explained that KACITA is currently the association that brings all traders in the country and they have over 20 associations which work under them while they are still in talks with others.
Other traders accuse Kabanda of forming the federation to use it as a weapon in his ongoing drive to mobilize money for his coming introduction and wedding to his lovely wife.
theGrapevine was told that traders were surprised when Kabanda decided to give his wedding budget to city landlords and one of them even offered to support him financially. Kabanda is of the view that once he gets married, his lifestyle will change and he will start handling issues respectively.
Others claim that Kabanda has political ambitions to stand for a political office in Kampala city come 2026 and he wants to use his federation and the association to gather political support.
theGrapevine also established that there is ongoing lobbying by city traders seeking to meet President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to discuss the problems the traders face during their operations and both Kabanda and KACITA are fighting to lead the traders to meet the President with each association fighting to be recognised as the umbrella of all traders.
When contacted, Kabanda denied all the accusations explaining that city traders are tired of KACITA because their leadership is in bed with landlords who are mistreating them. He gave the example of Isa Ssekitto the KACITA spokesperson who is also the spokesperson of Bagagga Kwagalana association which brings together all tycoons in Kampala city.
On the issue of not having a shop in the city, Kabanda rubbished the allegation and revealed that he owns a shop in BBC building a long Nabugabo which deals in open shoes nicknamed ‘Nigina’.
Kabanda’s statements were supported by sources in Uganda Revenue Authority(URA) who told theGrapevine that KACITA leadership act like dealers who agree with URA over a matter on behalf of the traders but after, they turn against them and disassociate themselves from the matter agreed upon and incite traders to turn against URA.
Edward Ntale the chairperson of UATEA revealed how traders’ association leaders enrich themselves through their associations.
He gave the example of the money collected from traders as transport to be used when going for meetings with government officials on issues concerning their problems.
Sulaiman Matovu, a trader dealing in shirts said that the problem they are facing is that all their association leaders want to take themselves as leaders of other associations and no one wants to listen to another which is hindering the way to solve their problems.
The internal fighting among traders comes days after Kabanda through his federation declared a sit down strike which was expected to start on Monday next week.
Kabanda asked all traders to close their shops to send a message to Museveni’s government that they have also joined the struggle to liberate this country after being worn out by the high taxes placed on their exports.
He pleaded with fellow traders to avoid people telling them that they should not participate in the strike because of the coming Idi day festival because they will lose business when they close their shops.
Kabanda advised them to buy all the goods which they will use on Idi day, insisting that they are in the struggle and they need to sacrifice to achieve what they want.
By Hadijjah Namagembe
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