Deputy Speaker orders inquiry into drivers' strike

By Moses Walubiri & Mary Karugaba

KAMPALA - The Physical Infrastructure Committee of parliament is set to interface with striking taxi drivers and other stakeholders as attempts to end a strike that has paralyzed public transport gathers pace.

This followed an order on Tuesday by Deputy Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah for the committee to table a report on the strike to the House over a host of grievances that have seen a sit down strike by taxi operators in Mityana, Bugiri, Kasese, Jinja, Iganga and Mbale enter its second week.

“Let the committee on Physical Infrastructure meet drivers and the other stakeholders over this issue,” Oulanyah said after Mukono Municipality MP, Betty Nambooze, raised the drivers’ grievances.

She told the House that one of the reasons the drivers have gone on strike is the “exorbitant fees” in taxes they pay to different local government entities on the routes they ply.

The legislator said that if, for example, a taxi plied the route between Mbale to Kampala, its operator would have to pay money to Kampala Capital City Authority, and city councils of Jinja, Iganga, Bugiri and Mbale.

These fees, she averred are over sh900, 000, accusing government of imposing stringent express traffic fines in an ad hoc manner.

Transport Minister Abraham Byandala, however, ruled out going back on government’s decision to impose stringent express traffic fines saying: “I cannot sit down and see Ugandans die in senseless road accidents. We shall make sure that sanity prevails on our roads.”

Byandala rejected Nambooze’s submission that hiked traffic fines will cause a spike in transport fares, describing the fines as “voluntary.”

“It’s those who commit traffic offenses who will continue paying these fines. It’s not a kind of tax that will be imposed across the board,” Byandala said.

The development comes at a time when transport fares to Eastern Uganda have short up over the ongoing strike.

Last week, drivers in Busoga packed their car and blocked the Jinja-Kampala highway in protest over the revised traffic scheme.