FUTA President John Kabanda with micro phone addressing reporters at Federation’s office
By George Bukenya
Traders under their Umbrella body, the Federation of Uganda Traders Association (FUTA) have attacked Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja accusing her for refusing to release the money that was released by government as a compassionate support to the affected individuals in the November.2025 floods in Kampala central business area.
They contend that this money is supposed to be paid out to all affected traders from the various arcades but the verification team left out the majority.
Speaking to reporters at FUTA offices in Kampala on Monday 11, 2025, the federation’s president, John Kabanda said that President Museveni met the flood victims without the attendance of the Prime Minister now after the money was released she is now having exclusive power over control of the money.
“ We are opening up a battle with however is holding that Compassionate support money because we are the leaders of traders in the country and we know very well however was affected by the floods but to our dismay many are left out,’’ Kabanda said.
The Prime Minister Nabbanja Robinah last week revealed that a total of 737 traders who were affected by floods in Kampala were cleared to start receiving the said money following the release of UGX 20b by the Ministry of Finance.
“ We want this money to be distributed fairly because there are at least 8 people in each of the affected shops although there’s one shop leader but were wondering how the 737 total was reached upon,’’ he said.
However, Kabanda says that this list is concocted since many victims from different arcades were left out and a few were verified.
According to Kabanda, the Prime Minister received different lists of affected traders by the vetting committee from URA (360), KCCA (480), KACITA (420), and Landlords (330) which lists says have ghost traders while the genuine majority were left out.
He also said that the Internal Security Organization (ISO) which was working on behalf of State House met with the Prime Minster and FUTA having failed to agrees on the genuine number of affected traders and advised the two sides to sit and reconcile the lists and this hasn’t been done yet the distribution of the money is beginning this week.
Moses Lwegaba FUTA’s spokesperson says that they have a list of 2,005 flood affected traders compiled from 19 arcades and this list ought to be reconciled with that of the vetting committee before the distribution of the money commences.
Some arcades according to Lwegaba were totally ignored by the Prime Minister’s vetting committee with ill motive. The affected arcades include; Ggagawa;a Shauriyako, Original Shauriyako, Nana Centre, Premier Centre, Freedom Centre, Capital Centre, Pentagon City, Jabolen, Nabukeera Plaza, Qauricel, French Plaza, Totala Business Centre, Jesco Beauty Centre, Ham Shopping grounds A&B, Ssekaziga, Ziba, MK Plaza, Juba Plaza, Farmers House, and part of St Balikuddembe.