By Steven Enatu
SOROTI CITY
Soroti Central Market Vendors today, 18th January, 2024 locked the market and stormed out selling their items outside, blocking streets and paralyzing business around the central business areas.
Robert Opus one of the vendors in the market said they arrived at the decision following consistent power blackout when UMEME disconnected power in the market three days ago.
He stressed that the market has accumulated power bills worth Shs32million.
It’s alleged that a company that had been collecting money for power has not been remitting money to UMEME.
This prompted vendors to demand that the city council allow them to pay power directly to umeme.
“The council of Soroti city accepted and even came and removed our yakka meters that they were going to reconfigure them to allow us pay direct to UMEME but that didn’t happen, instead we saw a company called save electricity that came and removed meters from all shops that had power in the market. The company was introduced to us by the market vendors,” he said.
He added that the vendors have been paying power bills and how the bill accumulated remains a mystery.
According to the vendors, they want government to allow them pay power direct to UMEME and remove middlemen.
“Imagine paying power to a company and that you pay through your phone and it’s only one person from that company to read to you your token,” he said.
Hamza Wayanga, another vendor said it has reached their climax operating in the market without water for two weeks and power for three days.
“We want them to rectify things in the market, we also need new market leadership and trade order,” he noted.
An insider in the city told our reporter that by December last year, the power bill was Shs6M, the former contractor of the market still has an outstanding power bill of 26million making the power bill to reach Shs32million.
The protest lasted for hours before police came and dispersed the vendors with heavy teargas at around 10am in the morning.
However by the time of filing this report, the market still remains closed while vendors returned and are operating along the streets and market parking spaces.
