The government has suspended enforcement of the controversial “Trade Order” operations across the country following mounting pressure from parliament and growing public outcry over the treatment of urban vendors.
Addressing plenary today, state minister for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, David Bahati, said the suspension is intended to allow further consultations and ensure a more orderly transition of traders into formal markets.
“We have listened to the concerns of the people and the representatives in this House,” Bahati told MPs.
“The enforcement of the trade order is hereby suspended until we can harmonise our approach with all stakeholders and ensure that every displaced vendor has a designated place to go.”
The decision follows weeks of scrutiny by legislators, who have questioned the implementation of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) manifesto, particularly commitments tied to the Parish Development Model (PDM) and protection of livelihoods among the urban poor.
Lawmakers argued that while restoring order in urban centres is necessary, current enforcement methods risk undermining government policy by displacing vulnerable traders without viable alternatives.
The suspension builds on a consultative meeting held at the Ministry of Local Government headquarters, where permanent secretary Ben Kumumanya met leaders of the Federation of Uganda Traders Association (FUTA), led by John Kabanda, to explore a more “humane” approach.
Although officials from the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), represented by David Nuwabine, reported an increase in licensed traders from 12,536 to over 20,000, MPs noted that many of the newly licensed vendors lack access to physical stalls.
The trade order forms part of the Local Government ministry’s annual performance framework, which is subject to parliamentary oversight through committees including Public Accounts (Local Government) and Trade and Industry.
Parliament has previously raised concerns over delays in market infrastructure, noting that of the Shs 8.3 billion allocated for market construction in the 2024/25 financial year, only three out of the planned 12 facilities were completed, according to the Auditor General’s December 2025 report.
FUTA’s Kabanda warned that enforcement without alternatives risks worsening displacement.
“We will ask parliament to track the number of stalls delivered against evictions conducted. Order without options is displacement,” he said.
According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) 2024 Labour Force Survey, the informal sector accounts for 87 per cent of the non-agricultural workforce. In Kampala alone, an estimated 230,000 people depend on street vending, hawking and boda-boda-linked micro-retail, based on a 2023 Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) study.
The suspension offers temporary relief to thousands of traders affected by enforcement operations since February 2026. Under the revised roadmap, government has opened a two-week window for stakeholders to agree on new trading locations, ahead of planned nationwide community barazas to explain the policy.
Parliament is also expected to review funding for the ministry of Local Government to accelerate construction of satellite markets. Analysts say the suspension comes at a politically sensitive moment, with the 2026 landscape approaching, and is likely aimed at balancing enforcement with public sentiment on jobs and urban livelihoods.
Very disturbing given the determination with Which the exercise was conducted; that even people who tried saving their goods risked lossing their lives under the graders. Why didn’t we first consult enough, engage all stakeholders, weigh the costs before implementing? Did we assume a wrong target but later realised majority of our own were affected? Had we thought about the possibility that many of the PDM groups are actually engaged in these businesses and are making returns to transform their lives? Did we think about the fact that these small stalls are fueling the big wheat, oil, poultry enterprises that generate billions of tax to government? Did we ever think that this trade order would completely paralize the sales from big enterprises? Now, we are out of guess work and let’s face the reality.
So, in a modern 21st century Uganda, projects that are earmarked to raise Ugandan lives up take decades to ever get completed and not without eye-popping headlines 🙄 but we know that many are surviving just on paper though long dead and trillions collectively lost.
The honchos running these decisions drive expensive red and blue number plates, sleep in high end dwellings, are drunkards that antagonize the peaceful enjoyment of life to the citizens, are well protected by specially trained dogs that wield guns and sticks, they never face traffic jam holdups, their children study anywhere on the globe, AND their own livelihoods are held together and supported by the very humble citizens that they trivially dismissively crush …
There’s no large taxpayer in Uganda that doesn’t heavily depend on the hard sweat of the businesses that were crushed … we all depend on each other and the most noble lives in our country are supported by the same informal setup. These businesses are the critical part in the commerce supply chain and they’re also the people that the top drunkards consider useless … effectively rendering all of us useless or insane!!
The drunkards don’t go for each other’s necks. They arbitrarily go for easy harmless targets with swiftness, but they have all sorts of excuses where it matters most to the national economy apart from stealing government funds. Then, after using their dogs, our own children, to literally take us back to stone-age in a matter of hours, they wake up and say, “Oh, we have listened to your tears.” Listen my foot! Are you suddenly going to make these crushed lives 7 times better to show how sorry you are for your arbitrary errors or it’s every one care for your own lot?
I think these drunkards are devil worshippers because they did exactly what the devil desires; steal, kill, destroy livelihoods. If you really repent of yours atrocities, then learn from Lazarus of the Bible, restitution from your own finances of at least 4 times the damage caused, but the Bible prescribes 7 times restitution. Then we can know you’re truly sorry for your thoughtless actions. You drunkards are not even stakeholders at all, but you execute draconian rules on the real stakeholders without any due process. I wish you could even go further and cut yourselves off of Ugandans’ lives so we know how tired you are of the citizens.
Who in his/her right state of mind can still deny that: this is a 45 years and counting Shauriyako Republic (TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN)?
In other words, “right or wrong”: you do anything at your own risk!
E.g., you can drive, ride or walk, etc., by either keeping Left, Right or Centre; of the Road, Sidewalk, Byway, Highway and Panya (rat path) at speed of your own choice!
Eish!