ARUA CENTRAL MARKET VENDORS DECRY INSUFFICIENT CCTV CAMERAS

By Frida Janeth
Arua City

Arua central market vendors have decried the increasing cases of insecurity in the Market due to limited installation of closed circuit television CCTV cameras.
 
The vendors say cases of theft and burglary have become rampart and follow up of the thieves have become difficult due to no records from the CCTV cameras.
 
Arua Main Market was constructed with the component of circuit television CCTV cameras on top of the few police officers deployed at the facility, however, these cameras are not at designated points where such culprits could be viewed.
 
Some of the vendors say that the most affected part of the market is the fish market which has registered the highest number of theft cases coupled with poor lighting at the facility.
 
“We don’t have power now it started yesterday but one they said that they will bring but we don’t know exactly what is going on, in fish side they are four to five cameras like that” one vendor said.
 
Another vendor also noted that, “we have cameras true but they are not enough but we are working up and down to fix them in all the corners so that we deal away with this issue of theft.”
 
“anything that get lost in the middle here it’s hard to track when you go to the camera you don’t see ,other places where the camera is focusing sometimes you can see  but sometimes you can  see but you will not understand what’s happening,” they said.
 
According to Herbert Odama the chairperson for Arua central market, the cameras only work when there is power but the market is still grappling with stable power supply.
 
“These CCTV cameras are only working if there is power but if there is no power they will not work but also there are some sides where by you find that you don’t get the CCTV cameras and it becomes easy for these thieves to also steal and we have raised the issue to city council to follow it up. I urge the city council and central division to act so that we have an organized market for all,” Odama said.
 
Leonard Agotre the IT specialist and operator of the CCTV cameras in the central market confirmed that they have few cameras in the market.
 
“So we have also where we failed due to the number of the cameras we have, the cameras are less, if you look at the structure of this market, we needed like 128 cameras, it means we may need like two NVR to be connected to link this market to cover the dark spots, at least we could have a proper view, you know camera works on targets,” Agotre noted.
 
From the Official IT specialist and operator’s records, Arua main market only 40 CCTV cameras against the 168 cameras that were planned to be installed in the market at the time of construction.