‘Landlords are blocking the re-opening of city arcades’ says Amongi

The minister for Kampala, Betty Amongi, has said that arcade owners are now the only stumbling block to the re-opening of businesses in their premises.

Ever since government started easing on lockdown restrictions that were put in place to curb the spread of the Coronavirus, a number of businesses have since been allowed to operate yet the fate of arcades remain unknown.

A meeting that was recently held between arcade owners, the health ministry and KCCA offered a ray of hope, but the solution seems to be far off.

While addressing a press conference at the Uganda Media Centre on Wednesday, Amongi said that government is ready to open arcades but the onus is now on arcade owners to fulfill the requirements.

Amongi said: “At the moment, the landlords have not brought back to us the timeframe within which they are able to put in place what was agreed on.”

“If you have fulfilled what was agreed upon, then you’re open.”

In a meeting held last month between the Minister of Trade and Industry Amelia Kyambadde and arcade owners, government set tough measures for the reopening of arcades that they had to fulfill.

Some of the measures included: reducing the number of shop occupants to three people to ensure social distance of two meters between attendants within the shop premises.

Arcades were also necessitated to demarcate and mark points where the buyers will stand while being attended to. They were also required to increase the number of guards on entry and exit points to manage the temperature guns, washing areas and sanitizing gates, compound and floor among other measures.

Yesterday, arcade traders through their association of Kampala Arcades Traders Association (KATA) threatened that they were going to stage a demonstration on June 14, 2020 if they don’t hear from President Museveni about the fate of their businesses by June 13, 2020.

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