KAMPALA – Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago together with the City Executive Cabinet have accused government of not consulting the city authorities while drafting a proposal that will see boda bodas kicked out of city.
On Wednesday, Lukwago and his team declined the invitation by the Minister for Kampala regarding the Cabinet Information Paper regulating the operations of taxis and boda bodas in Kampala. This move, the Lord Mayor said, pushes for a Presidential directive without consulting the different tiers of leadership in the City.
According to the draft paper, after lifting the lockdown, boda bodas will continue operating by only carrying cargo and abiding by the curfew time as they formalise their membership with registered digital companies like Safe Boda, Uber, Bolt. Taxify among others in the next 21days.
The taxis will use the next 42 days to undergo a verification process with the Transport Licencing Board on top of a mandatory inspection every six months plus payment of mandatory KCCA fees. After the lockdown, taxis will remain banned for 28days and in the first 42days, they will acquire a route chart from the Transport Licencing Board before being allocated stages.
According to the KCCA Act 2010 as amended, the Lord Mayor is supposed to initiate strategies and programmes for the development of the Capital and he had moved to formulate an Ordinance to regulate operations of Taxis and Boda Bodas in the City by the time the Act was amended. It should be recalled that on March 27, 2020, the Minister called off all Meetings and leaders cannot sit to exercise their mandate.
The Lord Mayor said this is a time to concentrate on post COVID-19 socioeconomic recovery strategies as opposed to such draconian measures. He asked the Ministers to avoid covert moves, embrace bottom-top collegial leadership and push for policies that resonate well with the groups particularly boda boda and taxis leaderships which they intend to serve. Unfortunately, all these groups are currently in disarray making it hard for them to be consulted yet we don’t have a social security strategy to sustain the number of heads that survive on a single matatu/taxi.
He emphasized that this culture of implementing without stakeholder involvement and proper planning has cost the institution colossal sums of money citing the clock tower water spring and Fairway roundabout that were demolished after injecting in a lot of money.
