UPC calls for elimination of street parking

By Nicholas Wassajja

UGANDA Peoples Congress has asked authorities to revisit car street parking in Kampala to exclude areas in the Central Business District.

At a press conference on Wednesday, the party vice president Joseph Bbosa said that due to the extraordinary congestion, in case of an emergency, there is hardly space to allow movement of fire brigades, ambulances and police.

While advising that heavy tax congestion should also be levied, Bbosa also argued that with the high population of over one million people residing in Kampala, if no measures are taken to improve infrastructure an enormous loss of lives might strike the country.   

“KCCA must levy congestion and emission charges on personal transport because it is ineffective and socially costly if we do not impose taxes on road users because there is a close positive relation between taxation and the quality of services we are demanding for,” Bbosa said.  

He added that, “when cars congest the city and no one is willing to pay the price, then we all pay through the polluted air we inhale, quality of health we acquire as a result and poor infrastructure that we may regret in the near future in case of a disaster.”

The UPC strongman argued that, “revenue raised must be recouped through constructing a well-coordinated mass transport system that connects the east to the west and the north to the south through the central. That is why we must have this policy with immediate effect.” 

However the deputy spokesperson of KCCA Robert Kalumba said that, “we think that the proposal is a good idea and it will not fall on deaf ears. As KCCA, we welcome views from different organs.”

In 2007, planning authorities attempted to decongest Kampala through introducing a fee on vehicles entering the city. The idea that died naturally was similar to that of developed cities like the US, UK, Sweden, Canada and Chile, where there is traffic management.

Commenting on the death of state prosecutor Joan Kagezi, Bossa said that despite constant measures to tighten security, there is a general laxity to take safe precautions.

“We now grieve the death of an irreplaceable fighter for justice but on the look of things, by the time of assassination, she did not have the security she deserves considering the sensitivity of her duty and this goes for all Ugandans,” Bbosa explained.

Bossa said that following alerts from the US mission in Uganda on terror threats, there was need to beef up security of all personnel handling international crime including judges, and witnesses.