urban-development 10 April 2026 Daily Monitor (Uganda)
Kampala's Green City Push Risks Destroying Vendors' Livelihoods
Uganda's drive for climate-resilient urban areas through vendor evictions and structure demolitions undermines social welfare and economic stability, as informal trading sustains most livelihoods. Experts urge integrating the informal sector into reforms for true inclusive urbanism. Source: https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/oped/commentary/a-city-cannot-be-truly-green-if-it-is-built-on-the-ruins-of-its-people-s-livelihoods-5418754
Uganda is pushing for green cities amid rapid urbanization, flooding, and environmental issues. Yet, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) actions like demolishing informal structures and relocating street vendors reveal a key conflict: environmental goals clashing with people’s incomes.
KCCA has provided over 4,500 stalls in designated markets for displaced traders. Still, this overlooks the informal economy’s central role, where street vending supports the majority lacking formal jobs. Studies indicate evictions lead to unemployment, poverty spikes, and crime, while hurting formal shops through lost foot traffic and sales.
Such moves also cut tax revenues as business slows, countering fiscal targets. Policies favoring formalization echo neoliberal influences from World Bank and SDG-linked funds, prioritizing order over livelihoods. Relocated markets often fail due to poor location and infrastructure, pushing vendors back to streets or out of cities.
True climate resilience means building shock-absorbing societies, not weakening the poor. Enforcement has sidelined vendors’ voices, but solutions lie in inclusive urbanism: co-designing mixed-use spaces and valuing informal work.
Uganda must choose between displacing the vulnerable or balancing green goals with justice, as argued by James Tayebwa Bamwenda, PhD candidate at Makerere University.
Source: Daily Monitor (Uganda)