Vacate Kampala or face Jail- Minister Kabanda orders Passenger taxi, bus brokers

Passenger taxi, and bus brokers have been ordered to vacate Kampala city with immediate effect. Kampala minister Minsa Kabanda has announced.

Kabanda, the minister for Kampala Capital City and Metropolitan Affairs, has revealed that failure to do so will lead to arrest, jail, or a fine of Uganda Shillings six million.

She has added that they will also face a jail term of six months.

She issued the order while laying out new city guidelines that abolished bus and taxi stages which had mushroomed all over the city.

Kabanda said many brokers and touts had left the bus terminals and taxi parks to begin looking for passengers on the streets away from the designated transportation hubs.

This is unacceptable and the trend should be reversed. Section 99 of the Traffic and Road Safety Act, 1998 as amended prohibits touting. The penalty for touting is a fine not exceeding 300 currency points (6 million) or to imprisonment for six months or both,” she said.

She pointed out that such people are fond of extorting passengers where they charge passengers exorbitant transport fares and then taking the passengers to buses where they pay less than half of the money taken from the passengers. At times, the passengers including children are abandoned after taking their money.

It is upon this background that she directed that all booking offices, kiosks, and booking desks outside the gazetted parks be closed with immediate effect.

All buses and taxis should return to their designated terminals and parks for loading and off-loading. No bus or taxi should be on the streets.

“All brokers should be removed from bus terminals, taxi parks, and the streets with immediate effect. The police and KCCA should immediately start enforcing these measures,” she said.

The operation against touts started immediately and 30 were arrested from around Burton street, Ben Kiwanuka street, and Rashid Khamis road.