Ebrima Sillah, minister of Works and Infrastructure and Talib Ahmed Bensouda, Mayor of KMC
By Buba Gagigo
Ebrima Sillah, the Minister of Works and Infrastructure, has criticized the Kanifing Municipal Council’s handling of the “Operation Clear the Roads” initiative.
Addressing the issue on the For The People By The People show, Minister Sillah stated that it is the responsibility of KMC to ensure proper market facilities for residents. He expressed concern over the council’s alleged failure to address traffic obstructions effectively and accused them of misleading vendors.
“You’ve quoted the KMC that they gave these people (vendors) up to a day to go and sell. That is their responsibility to provide markets for the residents of the municipalities that they head. It will be hypocritical for the leadership of the KMC knowing that there is traffic obstruction all over KMC or in other parts of the urbanized regions of this country, to give a false narration to women sellers, when it is their responsibility to ensure that these services are provided to the people. The KMC is earning monthly or yearly more than other ministry allocation in this country. You journalists should go and ask them, What are they doing with those monies,” Minister Sillah told For The People By The People show on Sunday.
Minister Sillah also mentioned the efforts of the central government to address the issue by allocating central locations for displaced vendors. He pointed out the availability of an unused market space at Brusubi face 2 near the Brusubi roundabout as a potential solution. The government is actively engaging in discussions to alleviate the plight of those who rely on street vending for their livelihood.
“We have seen how easy it was to move around. Now what the government has decided to do is to provide a central place for a lot of these people in different areas in the greater Banjul area where this problem is most pronounced. Especially for women sellers and those family owners who actually go around to look for their daily bread on the streets. It is to ensure that we provide them a central place to sell and one thing that is there is the market that is already built and not used at Brusubi face 2 going the Brusubi roundabout. Government cleared this place, discussions are ongoing to ensure that we ameliorate the suffering of some of those people who have nowhere to sell,” minister Sillah said.
Ebrima Sillah currently serves as the Minister of Works and Infrastructure in President Adama Barrow’s administration.