Non-registered buses, taxis warned not to access the city

UGANDA|TRANSPORT|KCCA 

As public transport resumes operating on Thursday, all non -registered public taxis and buses have been warned not to enter Kampala.

The registration which begun at the end of May and is being conducted at Old Kampala Secondary School and Kitante Primary School will go on until June 30, 2020.

The warning was issued by the Minister for Kampala, Betty Amongi, as she issued guidelines for opening public transport at the President's office in Kampala.

The Minister advised non-registered public transport operators not to drive into the city centre for it will be breaching the KCCA and Ministry of Works and Transport (MoWT) regulations aimed at streamlining the transport industry during this COVID-19 pandemic.

"All public transport operators ought to be re-registered, get and be allocated with a route chart, so there is no way one will access the city without registering knowing where to via from," Amongi said.

Amongi, who was accompanied by Benny Namugwanya, the State Minister for Kampala, and the acting Executive Director for KCCA Eng. Andrew Kitaka among others revealed that the move is aimed at monitoring and trucking any passenger who may be contracted with the novel COVID-19 pandemic.

She elucidated that a total of 1500 taxis, 300 buses, their drivers, and owners plying various routes in the country had been registered, adding that about 500 were registered to operate upcountry and 300 buses out of 1000 had completed the registration to start operating.

"We have completed marking three parks out of seven that we are tentatively going to be using as we refurbish the others. These are Namirembe, Usafi, and New Taxi parks," she said, adding that all parks will have a health officer attached to monitor enforcement of SOPS.

Other towns that have registered taxis to operate include; Jinja, Mbale, Kapchorwa , Soroti, Busembatya, Iganga, Mayuge, Busia, Gulu, Mpigi, Mbarara, Rushere, Sembabule, Fort Portal ,Kyenjojo, Kamwenge, Ibanda, Kiruhura, Gomba, Masindi, Lira and Nakasongola, among others.

"Each park shall screen passengers for any signs and symptoms of COVID-19 and if the traveler exhibits temperatures of 37.5 degrees and above, they should be handed over to a KCCA health officer at the Park," Amongi said.

For new people to register, they should have the following;

A logbook, vehicle owner's national identification card, valid driving permit, driver ID, drivers and owner's telephone numbers, and a copy of PSV license.

Also noted that in case the vehicle owner‘s name is not the one that appears in the logbook, the person registering must have an agreement registered, and KCCA will issue the application and letters of registration with route numbers.

 Phase two to the Minister of Works and transport

You should have a letter from KCCA indicating an allocated route number, a PSV license, a valid driving permit of the driver, and evidence of third party insurance. 

And after all the processes are done, MOWT will issue the operator with a route chart.