By Paul Adude
Entebbe Municipality Town Clerk Charles Magumba has revealed that the recently commissioned Kitooro Market was sealed off to safeguard equipment from thieves.“The moment you leave such a giant structure out there in the open, people will steal things. We are doing final touches, the completion is 99.9 per cent, we are now doing security checks to cover the speakers, cameras and we have very many facilities in there which need to be sealed,” he said.Mr Magumba made the remarks on Monday in regard to the Shs25 billion market’s closure which will accommodate more than 930 stalls.“We expect to open the market to people on the first of March,” he said.In October last year, during a tour of works on the market with the State minister for Local Government, Ms Jennifer Namuyangu and the project manager, Mr Patrick Rubongoya, the team indicated that the testing of the installed modern systems would have been done by the beginning of last November to ensure functionality before handing over to the government officials. “We have been doing tests, police carried testing of the firefighting system, which they cleared and they are now writing a report. After that, we shall get an occupation permit then handover to the Ministry of Local Government, which will work together with the vendors to have them smoothly occupy the market,” Mr Rubongoya said. Mr Rubongoya said the construction of the market was supposed to be completed by February last year but faced a delay due to the construction of roads in its surrounding . Advertisement
A section of the recently commissioned Entebbe Modern Market in Kitoro. The facility has been fenced off to safeguard equipment. PHOTO/PAUL ADUDE.Official launchWhile launching the market last week, President Museveni said the facility, which is one of the 12 modern markets constructed under the Markets and Agriculture Trade Improvement Project, will solve the childcare crisis that has kept many Ugandan women less productive.“The women, specifically those with pre-school age children have been catered for in these markets. We have built a daycare centre where they can keep their children. They should not go through the trouble of selling their tomatoes while the kids are disturbing them,” he said.Mr Museveni urged vendors to concentrate on improving their incomes. “With these facilities, you can use this market as a school for low-income earners, so you must work hard and graduate to the next level and leave others also to come and join,” he said. editorial@ug.nationmedia.com
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