The Ministry of Internal Affairs has announced that going forward, Ugandans buying items from foreigners who are hawking items including utensils will be arrested.
According to the ministry spokesperson, Simon Mundeyi, said it has come to their attention that the number of foreigners hawking products has gone up, noting that most of these don’t even have work permits.
“We have arrested some of these foreigners and most of them don’t have documents authorizing them to work here .Of course they sale them cheaply and lure Ugandans to buy them on hire purchase but they don’t have mandate to move around hawking these items. This is to be done by Ugandans,” Mundeyi said.
“You have mandate to report to nearby police, immigration or any other office that can be of help. Don’t just look on if you see foreigners selling these items without even asking their legal status here. Going forward, we shall arrest these people(foreigners) and those buying from them.”
The situation
On several occasions, these foreigners, mostly from Egypt have been seen in the city centre and the Kampala suburbs selling items mostly utensils including sauce pans, folks, spoons, cooking dishes and kettles.
The foreigners sell these packages for as little as shs700,000 and on hire purchase where one only stakes a copy of their national ID and pays the amount in installments of up to four months.
Ugandans are allowed to pay the money at their convenience including mobile money.
Many of the users say they prefer these items partly due to their durability.
However, speaking on Monday, Internal Affairs spokesperson, said it is appalling that Ugandans can stake their national IDs and sometimes passports to foreigners.
“It is very wrong for Ugandans to get your national ID and hand over to a foreigner whose particulars you can’t tell in the name of getting utensils on credit. The worst has come that some of these foreigners have started arresting Ugandans for not paying for the utensils. It is very absurd that a Ugandans in their own countries are being arrested by foreigners on account of not paying some of these products . We know, they(foreigners) are working with certain agencies and we are soon finding out but it is wrong,” Mundeyi said.
