By Martha John Savio – Kitgum Uganda
Kitgum District’s main market construction work has been extended for more than six times without completion, delaying its handing over to Kitgum Municipality.
Over a phone interview Friday with Kitgum Municipal town clerk, Mr. Alikwan Ayub Kisubi told No. 1 Citizen Daily Newspaper that, the Matif market construction had been extended for more than six times due to some challenges of finance since the market construction is being financed by the government of Uganda whose head is the President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
Mr. Alikwan added that, the finance challenges were due to lots of government plans and some have to be addressed immediately for instance COVID-19 response in 2021, some market vendors had not completed all the registration process as required for follow up, there are also some projects that the government is financing which has contributed to the delay of market construction.
Mr. Alikwan further said, some challenges included, other issues contributing to the delay is that some plans at the sides were not in the bill of quantity (BOQ) which had to be documented and pilled to the government for another finance to be lobbied for.
Mr. Alikwan stressed out that, community should not worry about the current delays because the construction work has reached up to 95% which means most of the market works are done for instance warehouses have been completed, some parts of electricity wiring are also done, cementing and plastering is also completed, which remains installation of water pipes, fly over from Bock A to B, and from Block to D for easy movement of market vendors and customers since it’s a storey building.
The municipality town clerk Mr. Alikwan added that the remaining works are septic tank and other additional works that will be considered from the constructors.
More still, Mr. Alikwan stressed that, these market challenges are not only in Kitgum but it is also experienced in other Districts in Uganda which market’s had not yet been completed for instance in Tororo District in Eastern Uganda, when the president had gone to commissioned the market, the president found out that, there are still missing gaps which had to be worked on so he had promised to give more financial support so as to avoid unforeseen circumstances and risks.
Mr. Alikwan concluded that, he will organize and call for council meeting so as to come up with a standing resolution so that councilors should monitor the market works to avoid miss communication concerning the market.
Since January 2021 the Matif market construction was delayed due to some challenges of risk during COVID-19 and by November 2022, the market was expected to be commissioned to Kitgum Municipality to effectively begin registering interested market vendors, unfortunately up to date the Matif market construction is not fully completed.
The Constructors are the Gateway Chinese Constructors with the help of local labourers within Kitgum and outside Kitgum Municipality.