Tough Guidelines Await Kampala Taxi Operators
It will be a different story for public transport operators in the metropolitan Kampala as they resume their operations on June 4, 2020, the date President Yoweri Museveni gave for the lifting of the ban on public transport.
The taxis will be welcomed back with a set of new guidelines which among others will not allow the taxis to freely roam around the city except on designated routes.
The Minister for Kampala Metropolitan Affairs Betty Amongi told journalists at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala that each taxi operating within the Kampala metropolitan area will be allowed to ply a specific route which therefore requires all taxi operators to first register with KCCA to be assigned parks and stages.
Amongi said that after registration and assignment of routes, the drivers will pick their route charts from the Ministry of Works. The route charts shall last until December 31, 2020, before a permanent chart is issued.
The arrangement is in line with the new guidelines for public transport in Kampala which were jointly drafted by KCCA, the Ministries of Kampala Affairs and Works and Transport Ministry, and approved by the cabinet on Monday.
Taxis plying the different routes will have distinctive colours and numbers. The colours to be used are black, red, yellow and green which the authorities hope, will help in tracking the taxis.
All operators of public transport are expected to have personal protective equipment like a face mask and provide handwashing facilities for passengers to wash their hands and a temperature gun to measure the temperature of passengers before boarding.
In the taxi parks, the taxis will park two meters away from each other while taxi touts have been told to keep away.
All taxis will be subjected to compulsory inspection through SGS in addition to payment of park user fees to KCCA. The new directives will directly be enforced by KCCA without involving taxi operator associations.
Boda Bodas will continue operating without passengers and respect curfew time as indicated by the President. The Authority is currently working to gazette boda boda stages and Bodaboda free zones.
The authority has listed 970 Bodaboda stages across the three divisions of Kampala. So far, they have approved 585 stages.
