KCCA should demarcate parking space for taxis

By Kavuma Kaggwa

I am writing to thank the Executive Director of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), Jennifer Semakula Musisi, for what she has done so far in 2012, to beautify Kampala Road. The middle islands on Kampala Road from that side of the Electoral Commission and the beginning of Entebbe Road look green and beautiful portraying a picture of a road in a place of civilised people.

The modernisation exercise is continuing from the Immigration Department on Jinja Road to Nakawa, and the western part of Kampala Road and Kamwokya Road from Wandegeya.

Most importantly, I would like to thank her for abandoning that terrible plan of demolishing people’s buildings in Kampala, which had come like a tornado.

Thank God, that plan was abandoned because, if it had continued, it could have made many people become poor because considering the economic situation we are in now, it would be impossible for many of them to raise money to put up new buildings.

The biggest problem facing people in Kampala right now is lack of parking space or parking areas on the streets of Kampala (mainly Kampala Road) for the taxis commonly known as “Kamunye.”

Right now, we have a situation whereby the taxis are not allowed to park anywhere on Kampala Road so that the passengers can get out. If you are travelling from Nakawa and you want to alight at the Railway Station or at Uganda House, the driver will take you all the way near Cairo Bank, if he manages to stop there, if there is no traffic police around. You walk all the way back to the Railway Station area or wherever you want to go around that area.

It is the same problem from Wandegeya to the City centre. One cannot easily alight from a taxi anywhere in between the KPC and the City Square.

The KCCA should demarcate parking space for the taxis on both sides of Kampala Road so that the public is not inconvenienced anymore. The current situation on Kampala Road is like animals in a national park, where the lions keep on chasing the antelopes.

The UTODA taxis have been paying sh120,000 each every month to KCCA for operating in Kampala, a fee that court has outlawed as being illegal. This amount, I think, was much more than what KCCA receives from Multiplex, therefore, proper parking space must be demarcated for them. This is a very easy policy to adopt.

KCCA should copy the London system. When a taxi arrives at a demarcated parking, the passengers get out and others enter, if any, if there are no passengers entering that taxi, it must leave immediately. This process should take three minutes.

Members of the public should wait for the taxis at the demarcated areas only. Each taxi should have its destination clearly indicated on the front windscreen to guide the passengers. Ultimately there will be no need for the taxi conductor to shout too much announcing the destination.

I propose that the following areas on Kampala Road should be demarcated as parking for taxis:

The space between Shell Petrol Station and Bank of Africa, the area in front of the Railway Station, the space in front of Uganda House, the space opposite the Post Office just before Cairo Bank, the space in front of Fidodido Restaurant, the space at the beginning of Bombo Road, and near the new City Tyre Petrol Station.

From Wandegeya, the space at YMCA, the space between Sure House and KPC and the space opposite Fidodido before the Catholic Bookshop, the space at the Shell Petrol Station, the space at the City Square currently used by the Mukono taxis, the space in front of Amber House, the space at the Total Petrol Station between Diamond Trust Bank and Nandos, the space in front of the new branch of Bank of Baroda, and the space at Centenary Park opposite the Electoral Commission.

If this system is implemented by the KCCA and the Government, then the traffic policemen will be deployed at those demarcated parking areas and their work will be to ensure that the taxi drivers adhere to these new instructions and rules.

Finally, according to what I saw in Lesotho in 1998/99, where the people’s daily transport is owned, managed, and operated by the people, I appeal to Musisi and the Lord Mayor, Salongo Erias Lukwago, that among the good things they will do for us in KCCA, they should preserve and protect the UTODA transport industry because it is the economic lifeline which feeds millions and millions of Ugandans.

JM KAVUMA-KAGGWA

Elder from Kyaggwe

Mukono District