The construction of the new Ham towers, the fourth in the city, was marred by uncertainties and violent skirmishes between police and vendors who originally occupied the place, football lovers who frequented the now demolished Nakivubo stadium, politicians and many other people.

Now, it appears that some of the more than 1,000 vendors evicted have returned to occupy the new mall albeit with more investment capital. Interviews with people affected by the new structure revealed mixed feelings.

Barely a month since it was opened, the mall’s tenancy is increasing by the day even before it is fully complete. Most shops on the lower ground are already occupied while the empty ones upstairs carry a “Booked” poster at the entrance.

“The mall is new as you see. So, customers are not yet used to it,” 25-year-old Patrick Kirabo, a kitenge fabric seller, in the mall said.

Kirabo currently doesn’t make more than eight sales a day, a number which is far below the more than 20 sales he used to make while in Mukwano Arcade before he left due to the hiked rent fees. He is optimistic, though, that the strategic location of the mall will definitely come in handy soon.

“Look outside there,” he says, pointing through his open shop, which overlooks the new taxi park. “You see all those people passing, they are potential customers.”

Jacqueline Ariokot used to sell second hand clothes in the Park Yard (Owino) market before Kampala Capital City Authority officials evicted them in March.

She says most of her merchandise was destroyed and some looted. She didn’t give up, though. She borrowed money to reinvest in her business.

“I decided that I shouldn’t sell clothes anymore. I got money and went into cosmetics and given this location and the way women can buy, I do not regret coming here. I have been here for just two weeks but I have paid back almost half my loan. I know the future is good,” Ariokot says.

However, some people still say life is a struggle. Many traders claim they were making more money at the Park Yard, a section of the Owino market, before the place was razed down to pave way for the construction of the mall.

“We didn’t pay too much rent like we are paying now. But now, we pay so much and yet the customers are not yet coming. The sales I could make in the park yard are more than what I make here,” Umaru Katende, a trader at the mall, says.

Katende says many former Owino traders were paying about Sh 300,000 as rent. But currently, they are required to pay as high as Sh 3,000,000 for subrenting a room in the new mall.

The mall is currently dominated by people selling clothes, stationery and cosmetics.

“You cannot expect me to sell expensive gadgets in such a place. This is downtown and people here love cheap things. So, I will choose to sell these tops and leggings to those many women you see down there,” Francis Mulengwa says.

To him, the location of the mall was a master plan and whoever came up with the idea of selling part of the famous Nakivubo stadium “is the winner.”

“We don’t need a stadium in the middle of the city; what we need are structures like this. Commercial structures that can help many of us get what to eat,” he says.

The mall has created some bit of tension among its neighbours. Traders in neighbouring buildings fear customers might shift to the new Ham building.

“Ugandans love new things. You are going to see them going to Ham instead of coming here. We are not going to sell as much as we have been selling if that mall fills up,” Christine Atenyi, a trader, says.

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