Annet Kyomuhendo lives in Nyendo, Masaka Uganda with her five (5) children.
She started vending in 2010, selling perfumes, head cover clothes and bed sheets
beside the main road to the city centre in Masaka City. Her daily income is UGX
35,000 which is equivalent to $10 US Dollars. Annet supports her household
through paying her children’s school and university fees, food, rent, electricity
among other responsibilities – especially with her husband being sick.
Annet pays UGX 5000 in taxes per day despite the local government considering
her work as non-registered business trade. During the tenure of her work, she
has suffered violations to her rights, physical assaults and harassment by the
police and government law enforcement.
Judith Namanya is a vendor in Mbarara City Western Uganda. Judith
struggles as a street vendor and must leave home to purchase goods
before 6:00am every day, return to the marketplace in a distant central
area by 10:00am, and navigate the spatial-inequality that comes with
this sort of informal work. Judith says working this way day in and day
out is daunting, emotionally draining, and physically exhausting,
however she cites the material and social support she and other
vendors provide one another in the form of resource sharing and
protected selling space, as a source of strength.
