The business community along the Namugongo road has complained of the extremely low sales during this year’s martyrs’ day celebrations compared to previous years, stating that the pilgrims are not purchasing traders’ commodities.

During interviews carried out with a number of business owners, they stated that this year’s martyrs’ day celebrations are the worst in terms of business compared to the previous years, citing that the pilgrims do not have enough money to make purchases.

“People have interest in goods but end up not buying them because of the prices. I cannot also lower the prices so much because now days everything is expensive compared to the previous years, and I am here to make profits so that I can grow my business,” David, a business owner dealing in clothes, said.

The business owners also complained about the poor economy, noting that it has made running businesses very expensive, which makes the prices of commodities rise as well.

“Everything is expensive nowadays; fuel prices remain up there, which is making the transportation of commodities go up. We try explaining this to our customers; a few understand, but the majority think we are trying to cheat them,” Lydia Nassaza, a food vendor, said.

The pilgrims accused the businessmen and women of exploitation, stating that prices of commodities are raised when one asks.

“If you cannot speak their language, they use that chance to exploit us and overprice the commodities. Most people also do not have money to buy commodities, as you can see from our economy,” Florence Adong, a pilgrim who walked all the way from Lira district, revealed.

This comes when the country is experiencing an economic downturn, which has resulted in high inflation of different commodities.