The Vulnerable Livelihoods of Street Vendors in Uganda: A Case of Kampala Central Division.

This study explored the extent to which the repressive policies exacerbate street vendors’ vulnerability to poverty and examine their coping strategies in Kampala Central Division (KCD). The study used a ‘mixed methodological approach’ to undertake the research. The ‘business categorization’ as a theory and ‘micro enterprise score card’ were used as a tool for business classification of street vendors’ businesses in KCD, with income and expenditure levels, Size of the business, working conditions, access to assets, ability to absorb risks and business sustainability as indicators guiding the exercise. Moser’s Asset Vulnerability Frame Work was adopted as an ‘analytical tool’ for data analysis and identification of various assets that can facilitate street vendors’ livelihoods in a challenging working environment. The study found that, street vendors were differentiated, although a big number of them were ‘survivalist entrepreneurs’, majority are women, very poor with limited capacity to save, reduce family risks and invest to sustain their businesses. This is aggravated by repressive street vending regulatory laws that perpetuate vendor’s working poverty through deprivation of opportunity and freedom to operate business, characterized by constant evictions and confiscation of goods. The paper argues that, because street vendors are considered as homogenous businesspersons in Kampala-Uganda, policy makers fail to design appropriate and feasible policies in relation to the needs of concerns of specific strata thus exacerbating their vulnerability to poverty and related risks. The main conclusion out of the study is that the current law as implemented by KCCA to get street vendors out of KCD is unjust and does more harm than good to the majority of the people, but also the development of Kampala as a town. We thus recommend a more street vendor friendly law, passed on basis of consultation with them, preceded by a study to establish their different categories.