The National Resistance Movement (NRM) Secretary General, Hon Richard Todwong, has vowed to rescue thousands of city vendors from the sharp fangs of loan sharks who take advantage of their financial situation to charge them exorbitant interest rates.
Hon Todwong was today meeting leaders of vendors from Kampala at the party headquarters when he said money lenders had become a real problem to the vendors yet there were various government programmes from which they could benefit.
“From the look of things, they are really suffering in the sense that they are always with money lenders. Money lenders have taken advantage of them. They give them little money with very high interest. You find someone borrowing 20,000 shillings and pays back at an interest rate of 20% and they will never grow because they are working to just pay money lenders,” Hon Todwong said.
“So we are trying to organize them, put them into groups and associations to see how best the government can help them through the many social programs that are under government,” He added.
According to Hon Todwong, the vendors can benefit from programmes such as the Parish Development Model (PDM), Emyoga and the GROW project under the gender ministry.
“Many of them have not even heard about such programs. So part of the sensitization we are doing with them is to mobilize them, to form them into an association that can make them perform better and get out of the hooks of money lenders,” Hon Todwong told the media shortly after the meeting.
He revealed that so far the party had registered at least 2,000 vendors, with more expected to be registered and mobilized so as to embrace and benefit from government programmes.
Hon Todwong also noted that many of the vendors had complained about the confiscation of their merchandise by officials from Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA).
“At times when KCCA enforcement officers come to evict them from the streets, they grab all their capital and they go away with it. And that generates bitterness to them,” Hon Todwong said.
“They [vendors] were saying they wish they could give them an alternative place where they can sell their products from. But the fact that they come forcibly grab their property from the streets, remove whatever they have, they are exposing them to the money sharks,” Hon Todwong explained.
“So when law enforcement officers come and grab their products, they have nothing to pay these loans with. And you find money lenders coming to collect their saucepans, their small, small items in their houses. And that generates that level of bitterness you would see.” He said.
Hon Todwong said most of them were single mothers who had the burden of looking after children on top of providing upkeep to other family members.
“And that is why we are saying we need to help them. And the fact that the majority are single mothers, we cannot now start discussing where their husbands are or what happened to their husbands. We just need to pick on from there and see how best we can help them as single mothers,” He said.
Hon Todwong condemned the attacks on innocent civilians by youths claiming to be supporters of NRM on the day when President Yoweri Museveni picked nomination forms.
“We sent out information to our members that we shall not tolerate such behaviors. And indeed, as it were, the investigations for the last incident confirmed that many of those young people who came and caused mayhem to our members were other youth leaders and members from other political parties who were dressed in NRM T-shirts. And it was very unfortunate because many of them were arrested and they confessed that they were sent to do that,” He said.
“But as a party, we don’t condone such behavior. It’s not what defines us. We are civil in nature. We respect everybody and we expect to be respected in return,” the Secretary General added as he cautioned candidates against engaging in violent clashes with fellow contenders.
“We have sent information to them and cautioned them that they should respect each other. They should stop misuse of the opportunities that have been given to them to contest and campaign among party members,” Hon Todwong reiterated.
“They should not be violent in running for these positions. They should respect the voters. They should respect the system. They should respect the organs of the party. And they should avoid using excessive money, buying favor from the voters. Now, unfortunately, there are people who don’t listen to this,” He noted.
However, Hon Todwong said some of the culprits had already been notified and if they don’t cease their actions, the party constitution would be revoked for disciplinary action.
