Survival Of The Farmer By Morning Vending In Kampala Central Bussiness District

ABSTRACT

This study explored the survival of the farmer by morning vending in Kampala CBD. This was after the realisation that liberalisation and rapid urbanisation of Kampala City have lefi 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 morning vending in Kampala CBD; to examine the effects of morning vending on the economy of Kampala CBD; and to find out the problems of morning vending in Kampala CBD. To achieve the stated objectives, the study was guided by the following research questions: what is the basis for the growth of morning vending in Kampala CBD? What are the effects of morning vending on the economy Kampala CBD? What are the problems of morning vending in Kampala CBD? The study design took the fonn of a case study of Kampala CBD where morning vending is remarkably visible. The study also involved purposive sampling in which the data sought were qualitative. A sample of 40 respondents was purposively sampled. The sample included 10 vendors, 10 KCCA employees, 10 opinion leaders and 10 buyers/customers. 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 morning vending in Kampala CBD was due to a multiple of factors that include the convergence of commuters, unemployment, complementary businesses and the liberalisation of the econoniy among others. The study also revealed that morning vending in Kampala CBD 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 environmental concerns and legitimacy of morning vending in Kampala CBD are some of the major problems faced by the vendors. The study recommends that the city planners and government should consider morning vending in Kampala CBD as one of the city realities and work out a modality for controlling and x regulating this trade given the fact that the economy is not expanding fast enough to create opportunities. This will lessen the thinking that morning vendors in Kampala CBD 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 morning vending in Kampala CBD. 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 morning vendors in Kampala CBD as it stimulates a culture of enterprise among the farmer. Facilities like garbage skips and lavatories should be readily available for the benefit of the morning vendors in Kampala CBD. The study concludes by noting that morning vending in Kampala CBD was a reflection of a multiple of socio-econornic 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 farmers have taken survival initiatives so as alleviate poverty and destitution and to create opportunities for themselves. Further, morning vendors in Kampala CBD will continue to face problems such as inadequate capital, insecurity of tenure on the streets, weather vagaries and inadequate facilities among others. This will continue not until the leaders appreciate the role played by the informal sector such as morning vending in Kampala CBD 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.