The Minister for Local Government, Mr Balaam Barugahara Ateenyi, has ordered a fresh investigation into the long-running dispute surrounding revenue collection and management of the lucrative Mpondwe-Lhubiriha cattle market in Kasese District.
The cross-border market, located along the Uganda-Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border, serves as a vital trading hub where Congolese traders cross into Uganda to purchase livestock.
Mr Barugahara issued the directive during a public accountability and anti-corruption meeting in Kasese, following concerns raised by residents and local traders over the management of the market. The minister directed the Kasese District Chairperson, Mr Eliphazi Muhindi, alongside the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) and the Resident District Commissioner (RDC), to jointly investigate why Mpondwe Cross Border Traders Cooperative Society Limited has been blocked from operating despite holding a valid contract.
‘Chairman [LCV], together with the CAO and RDC, please sit down. I am guiding you as minister to consider the loss suffered by these contractors and give them an additional six months so that they can work,’ Mr Barugahara said.
Addressing journalists in Fort Portal City, Minister Barugahara pledged to return to Kasese to ensure the cooperative is compensated, noting that the contractors were unfairly stopped after working for only eight hours. He alleged that local actors hijacked the market after realizing its profitability. ‘People saw that they were collecting good money, so they said, ‘Now this money should be our money, not government money,” he added.
In response, District Chairperson Mr Muhindi explained to the minister that local leadership had previously engaged the Ministry of Local Government in Kampala, where they were advised to have the contracts committee review the agreement and grant the cooperative a six-month extension.
The intervention follows a petition by the cooperative’s chairperson, Mr Adam Masereka, who stated that the group paid Shs317 million to Kasese District Local Government after winning the revenue collection tender for the 2022/2023 financial year through a competitive process under the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDA) Act. However, the dispute escalated when Isango Sub-county created a parallel cattle holding-ground market at Kabafu I village, relocating the market from public land to private land and rendering revenue collection impossible for the contracted group.
Mr Nicholas Mwebaze, a member of the cooperative, noted that despite securing court rulings and ministerial directives in their favor, local district officials allegedly colluded to block their operations. The dispute previously reached the High Court in Fort Portal, where Justice Vincent Emmy Mugabo ruled on November 16, 2022, that the Isango market be regularized and the approved tenderer be allowed to collect revenue per their contract.
Official documents seen by this publication reveal that former Local Government Minister Raphael Magyezi had also written to former Kasese RDC, Rtd Lt Joe Walusimbi, ordering the closure of the illegal market and enforcement of the Markets Act, 2023.
‘I urge the District Security Committee to implement government instructions without further delay… It is your duty to maintain peace, enforce transparent trade, and uphold lawful administration,’ Mr Magyezi wrote.
Facing mounting bank loans from institutions including Equity Bank, the cooperative is demanding either immediate operational clearance or a full refund of their Shs317 million payment with interest.