Street Vending And The Struggle Against Poverty In The Central Business District Of Kampala City

ABSTRACT

This study explored street vending and the struggle against poverty in the CBD of Kampala City. This was after the realisation that liberalisation and rapid urbanisation of Kampala City have left tens of thousands of the city residents in squalid conditions where abject and absolute poverty rule. The study specifically sought to achieve the following objectives: to explore the basis for the growth of street vending in the CBD of Kampala City; to examine the effects of Street vending on the economy of the CBD of Kampala City; and to find out the problems of Street vending in the CBD of Kampala City. To achieve the stated objectives, the study was guided by the following research questions: what is the basis for the growth of street vending in the CBD of Kampala City? What are the effects of Street vending on the economy of the CBD of Kampala City? What are the problems of street vending in the CBD of Kampala City? The study design took the form of a case study of street vending and the struggle against poverty in the CBD of Kampala City where Street vending is remarkably visible. The study also involved purposive sampling in which the data sought were qualitative. A predetermined sample of 50 respondents was purposively sampled. These included 20 vendors, five KCCA officials, five opinion leaders, and 20 buyers. The data were collected using interviews and observations for primary data and documents analysis for secondary data. The data were analysed qualitatively through the literal description and narrations of the emerging issues out of which opinions and conclusions were drawn. The study established that the growth of street vending is due to a multiple of factors that include transport hubs, lack of formal employment, existence of complementary businesses and the liberalisation of the economy among others. The study also revealed that street vending was a source of employment, income distribution, market for goods and services, empowerment for the disabled, youths and women. The study also showed that inadequate capital, health and enviromriental concerns and legitimacy of street vending are some of the major problems faced by street vendors. The study recommends that the city planners and government should consider street vending as one of the city realities and work out a modality for controlling and regulating this trade given ix the fact that the economy is not expanding fast enough to create opportunities. This will lessen the thinking that street vendors are a nuisance to the city. The study also recommends the need for empowerment projects for the disabled, youths and women that do not require huge sums of initial capital. Resources from NGOs, financial institutions and the government can then go to the disabled, youths and women associations. This will enable the disabled, youths and women to embark on other activities outside street vending. Further, the study recommends that the government as a regulator, promoter and facilitator of development, and its agencies should give support in the form of credit, technical aid, skills of small-scale businesses and financial management and security of tenure to street spaces to stimulate a culture of enterprise among the urban poor. Facilities like garbage skips and lavatories should be readily available for the benefit of the street vendors. The study concludes by noting that street vending was a reflection of a multiple of socio economic factors in a stressed and frustrated society e.g. destitution, poverty, rapid urbanisation, unemployment, informalisation of the economy and failure to expand the formal sector, As a result, the urban poor have taken their own initiatives to survive so as alleviate poverty and destitution, and to create opportunities. Further, street vendors will continue to face problems such as inadequate capital, insecurity of tenure on the street, weather vagaries, and inadequate facilities among others. This will continue not until the leaders appreciate the role played by the informal sector such as street vending in the transformation of society more so after the withdrawal of the government as the major actor and provider following the liberalisation of the economy in the 1980s and 1990s.