Bus operators, drivers suspend strike

By Taddeo Bwambale, Wilfred Sanya and Innocent Anguyo

Bus operators on Tuesday suspended an early morning strike that had paralyzed transport and had left long distance travelers stranded.

The bus owners were protesting the new regulations that compel them to follow strict schedules for their respective upcountry journeys.

Police force boss, Lt. Gen. Kale Kayihura recently directed that two police officers be deployed on each bus plying upcountry routes.

The officers who were deployed starting this week will monitor the conduct of drivers, as a way to curb road accidents.

But the move seemed unpopular among the bus operators, potentially leading to the Tuesday morning sit-down strike.

Among other things, the operators complained about alleged harassment of their drivers by the Police over failure to comply with the route charts.

“Police officers arrest our drivers because they do not follow their route charts. But the time for buses to set off is determined only when the seats have been filled,” said Henry Kato, the manager of Link Buses.

He said they cannot drive empty buses when they are incurring costs for fuel and other expenses.

‘Government to blame’

Yusunu Kiggundu, a bus driver blames government for neglecting its cause.

“We appeal to government not to blame drivers without them carrying out investigations on the increasing road accidents.

“From I993 when the private sector took over the role of transporting people, they [govt] stopped their role of inspecting all the vehicles before they could operate on the road.

“Buses are only checked after they have caused an accident. In the past, there used to be inspectors who made sure vehicles are in a condition good enough to operate,” he said.

Kiggundu has been a driver for over 30 years now.

According to him, government should respect the people from the private sector who came up to support it in the transport sector.

“Government used to operate buses in the past but failed to manage the business because it is not an easy job,” he argued.

He explained that on average, a bus spends sh1.3m on costs along the long routes yet they are confronted with poor roads in some sections of the journey.

Sometimes, the drivers are forced to use longer routes to avoid poor roads.

“We lose up to three hours on some routes during the rainy season.”

Some drivers today learn how to drive vehicles from washing bays and eventually end up in the transport business with that vague experience.

The pressure on government is also coming from the other end – the passengers.

Opio Moses, a traveler to Lira said government should sit down and have an understanding with the bus operators to iron out their differences.

“Government should not just come up to force onto the private sector what it wants,” he suggests.

But he also considers age and experience of the drivers as a key factor when it comes to the safety of passengers.

“Most of drivers today are young people unlike in the past where there was an age limit for bus drivers. Young people never think of the people they are carrying and they simply rush to their destinations.”

Fresh guidelines

Kayihura announced that effective this week, each bus would be inspected and manned by a Police constable and a traffic officer.

During a consultative meeting with bus owners, drivers and Ministry of Works and Transport officials last week, Kayihura said the move was to curb rampant accidents in the country..

“The officers will help to check the mechanical condition of the buses before take-off, the speed along the way and the behaviour of the driver,” Kayihura explained.

“We saw it necessary to deploy the officers in the buses as the only short-term means of minimising bus accidents in the country,” Kayihura said then.

He added that the officers would be paid by the Government through the Police Force.

He also said that the officers would undergo scrutiny before being deployed in the commuter buses, and that they would be rotated on a weekly basis.

The move came following a horrendous accident last Monday in which 14 people died on spot and several got injured when a speeding Horizon bus lost control at Malongo along Masaka -Mbarara highway and caught fire.

The Transport Licensing Board (TLB) revoked the Horizon buses’ licence until the company works on the condition of its fleet and compensation of the victims and their relatives.

Kayihura also put up a steering committee to come up with long-term solutions to curb the rampant accidents in the country.