IGNORED! Matatu drivers, touts call out District Taskforce as hunger bites amid COVID-19 pandemic
Kabale – Matatu (taxi) drivers and conductors on Monday, May 11, protested what they called starvation during the lockdown and failure by the municipal authorities to consider them for relief food.
The taxi (matatu) drivers and conductors had been called by the Kabale municipality authorities to the municipal council headquarters in Kabale town for a rapid COVID 19 testing by the ministry of Health as a way to identify the extent of the virus’ spread in the country.
However, after giving samples, the drivers gathered at municipal council grounds without observing social distancing and without face masks and demanded for an explanation on why the municipal authorities were not considering them for food relief.
Efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19, public and private transport were stopped and exposing taxi drivers and touts tot to was the only source of their income for survival.
The section which included Shanklin Babu, Moses Iraguha, Joseph Mugumya, Shakila Hajat among others wondered why the municipal authorities have continued to prioritize some other vulnerable categories of people like the disabled among others at the expense of drivers.
They noted that they are also starving and unless they are given relief food, they shall take to streets to protest instead of dying of hunger from their homes.
This took the intervention of the Kabale municipality mayor Emmanuel Sentaro Byamugisha who promised them some maize flour and beans on Wednesday.
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