Picture by Samuel Balagadde

Aisha Achan who was returning home in Lira from Iganga Quran School reached all bus terminals in Kampala  where she was expecting means on Sunday evening but failed to get any bus.

She opted to spend the night at Namayuba bus terminal in a passenger waiting facility but late at night as she slept, someone picked her bag containing her property including the National identity card and Sh50,000 part of which was for the bus fare to Lira.

Acan is among the victims of rampant thefts that are common during the festive season when people are traveling in big numbers to and from the village.

However, the management of the Namayuba bus terminal managed to track the culprit using the CCTV cameras that are spread all over the place.   

Nicholas Ssekandi the operations manager for this bus terminal said the victim recorded a statement at the nearby Riverside police post under Old Kampala police station on Ref 07/9/12/2019.

However, he said when they viewed the cameras, the footage revealed the suspect whom he said they immediately recognised as a regular. He promised to work with police to arrest him and recovery the items especially Aisha’s crucial documents.  

The incident has come at the time when bus terminals in the city  are filled with travelers  heading to respective upcountry destinations  for Christmas holidays and New Year celebrations

By Monday operators of some routes had already hiked fares. For instance,  from Kampala to Mbarara charged range between Sh25,000 and Sh30,000 respectively from the usual Sh20,000.

However, for other routes like Eastern, maintained the regular fares although the traveler's numbers had almost doubled meaning that some have to wait for an average of three to five hours to get a bus.

This has been partly attributed to stringent measures put in place by the Transport Licensing Board TLB and the traffic police in enforcing the route charts and enforcing a ban return journeys for buses that ply a distance of over 300km.

Dr. Stephen Kasiima last week earned all bus operators to strictly adhere to the time schedule indicated on their respective route charts else their buses are to be impounded and drivers charged.

He warned bus operators against forcing drivers to drive buses that are in questionable mechanical condition while trying to tap into this festive season.

Yunus  Kiggundu the chairman of United Bus Drivers Association UBDA said it is high time the government came up and listen to drivers' problems that might be partly because of other causes of fatalities in the industry.

He said due to current unemployment drivers are silently tortured by some bus owners through nonpayment while others get peanuts forcing them not to concentrate on the road that ended up accidents.