Inside government’s move to streamline boda bodas, taxis in city after lockdown

Government through the Ministry of Kampala and the Ministry for Works and Transport has finalized plans to streamline the taxi and boda boda operations in the city after the lockdown is lifted.

President Museveni on Monday announced a 14-day extension of the lockdown up to May 19.

However, government according to the framework paper by the Kampala Minister, taxis will not be allowed in the city for 28 days whereas boda bodas will be barred for 21 days after lifting of the lockdown.

“Kampala City is characterized by traffic congestion and uncoordinated traffic movements especially during peak hours. Among other factors, it has been attributed to the existence of many illegal stages for public transport particularly taxis. This creates bottlenecks on the road network especially during peak hours where there is more vehicular movement,” government says in the document.

It is also said that at many illegal stages in Kampala, passengers suffer long waiting periods during peak hours which compromises their security.

The exercise will therefore ensure government get the list of gazette  taxi stages, gazette taxi parks , routes and stops on top of arriving at colour codes for public transport services.

Post-lockdown period

After the lockdown, KCCA and the Ministry of Transport will use the first three weeks to gazette stages, taxi parks and transport routes.

During this period, taxis will not be allowed in the city and after, they  will be allowed to move to only gazette parks .

Meanwhile, after resuming operations, government will verify all taxis in the city and those that will not have registered under the Transport Licencing Board, paid KCCA fees on to of other specifications and requirements to operate in the city will face the wrath of the law.

“Taxis that shall force entry into the city shall be expected to pay a fine to KCCA and the Transport Licencing Board .Taxi drivers operating in the city shall be properly vetted by the stage leadership they are attached to,” government says.

Meanwhile, taxis will not be allowed to park along roads as they wait to transport passengers from a stage but will be encouraged to adopt a digital technology that will alert them of their turn to load from the stage.

Taxi stages and parks

According to the document, there are only 66 provisional stages including taxi parks in the five divisions of Kampala.

Eligible taxis will be allocated to stages by their leadership and monitored by the same.

The document mentions the Old taxi park, the new taxi park, USAFI, Kisenyi, Namayiba. Namirembe, Nakawa and Nateete as the only taxi parks in the city.

Boda bodas

According to the document, the city will have 585 boda boda stages from the original 970 stages and each must have a sign post from KCCA.

All boda-bodas shall operate under digital companies using apps like Safe Boda, Uber and  Bolt among others.

Kampala Lord Mayor, Erias Lukwago however on Wednesday said the move is unfair .

He said boda boda riders and taxi drivers ought to have been involved in this exercise.