Police have said that starting from today, they are going to step up operations against violators of curfew and other Covid guidelines put in place by government.
Government has of recent relaxed lockdown measures as the number of Covid infections went down but many other guidelines like the curfew remain in place.
However, addressing journalists on Monday, Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga said many Ugandans have continued disregarding the Covid guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures, a thing he said is a cause for worry in the fight against the pandemic.
“We have realized a blatant disregard to the Covid guidelines and SOPs where you find many pedestrians on the road past the 7pm curfew time, boda bodas moving past 6pm whereas others having more than one passenger. Motor vehicles also move past curfew time. Our territorial commander have been asked to step up operations to arrest the violators of the SOPs and guidelines,”Enanga said.
The police mouthpiece said the enhanced operations starting today will also target shops working past the stipulated 7pm time, bars opening stealthily and vehicles not observing the 75% capacity limit as directed by the president.
“Our territorial commanders have been directed to intensify joint operations against offenders.”
Over 1400 arrested, 3200 boda bodas impounded
The police spokesperson said in operations carried out last week, a total of 1425 people who were violating mostly the curfew were arrested and that 924 of these were cautioned, 195 released, 249 charged in courts of law and 57 are pending court.
“We impounded 837 vehicles, Express Penalty System tickets issued to 590 motor vehicles and 247 drivers cautioned whereas 3228 motorcycles including boda bodas were impounded,”Enanga said.
“We expect these numbers to increase this week because of the aggressive enforcement we are to carry out .”
Kampala Metropolitan deputy police spokesperson, Luke Owoyesigyire said that this time round, not only the vehicles and motorcycles will be impounded but also the drivers and riders will be arrested.
“Since the president announced the relaxation of the measures and directing the release of impounded motorcycles, we have seen an increased violation of curfew guidelines. This time round, the drivers and riders will also be arrested. In the past we were only impounding vehicles and motorcycles leaving the drivers to go home but this has changed,” Owoyesigyire said.
“The riders and drivers will have to spend the night in our cells.”
