“Like the Chicken and the Egg”: Market Vendors and the Dilemmas of Neoliberal Urban Planning in Re-Centralised Kampala (Uganda)

Abstract

The article explores how groups of informal workers understood the role of the city management in the demolition of Kisekka, a spare parts market in Kampala doomed to be replaced by an "ultramodern" shopping mall. The case unfolds between the push for entrepreneurialism, competition and individual initiative typical of neoliberal urban planning, and the re-centralisation trend that has characterised Kampala in the past decade. Despite narratives of self-entrepreneurship and independence, the presence of the central government in the urban workers' lives was substantial. While decentralisation in Uganda has not necessarily guaranteed better service provision, the mushrooming of local administrative divisions has proved to be a winning card for the party in power. Kampala, however, represents an exception. Mayors have been elected from the opposition parties for two decades, prompting the government to re-centralise the city administration through the Kampala Capital City Authority Act 2010, which has returned the city to the government's direct control. As a result, the municipality has intervened massively in projects of urban development, including the demolition and reconstruction of a number of city markets like Kisekka. The article shows the tension between centrifugal and centripetal forces in the administration of the capital and its consequenses in the lives of Kisekka Market workers.