The Kabale Deputy Resident District Commissioner, Ronald Bakak, has ordered the arrest of five people for alleged corrupt practices by soliciting bribes in the allocation of stalls to vendors in the new Kabale Central Market.

Mr. Bakak made the directive while presiding over investigations by an ad hoc committee that was set up to find out if there was corruption in the registration of vendors in the new market.

The ad-hoc committee began the verification exercise with vendors dealing in general produce. The committee led by The Kabale Deputy Resident District Commissioner, Ronald Bakak, includes officials from the Ministry of Local government. The committee began with the produce dealers because of several complaints they raised in the allocation of stalls.

Addressing journalists shortly after the verification exercise, Bakak said that the five suspects were handed over to police to record statements. They are Vicent Kagorero, Robert Byansi, Dalton Naturinda, Medard Bisamunyu, and John Mbonigaba.

The five were reportedly found with fake documents, while others signed for themselves on the allocation slips.

Bakak adds that most lockups were found closed, probably evading the verification exercise. He noted that when the two-month grace period given to vendors elapses, the lockups not in use will be considered vacant and they will be handed over to Kabale municipal authorities for re-allocation.

The Rev. Canon Jack Katarishangwa, the chairperson for the committee in charge of allocating lockups in the Market, claimed that most of the lockups are owned by civil servants and politicians in the Kabale district. He noted that most of the lockups were not verified because they were closed.

Katarishangwa said that if their grievances are not addressed, they will ask the government to compensate them for missing space in the new market yet they were occupants in the old market.

More than 200 aggrieved vendors who were denied space in the new Kabale Central Market protested the allocation process and petitioned the Minister of Local Government Raphael Magyezi.

Magyezi set up a special committee led by the Resident District Commissioner, Godfrey Nyakahuma to investigate circumstances under which genuine vendors were denied space. The physical verification exercise will be concluded on Friday and the ad hoc committee will then summon the municipal authorities to answer the questions raised against them before the final report is submitted to the Hon. Magyezi next week.