KCCA minister orders removal of taxi touts, brokers from taxi parks, streets

The Minister for Kampala Capital City (KCCA) and Metropolitan Affairs, Minsa Kabanda, has issued new directives to bus and taxi owners, bus and taxi parks and bus and taxi operators in an attempt to re-organize public transport in the country’s capital Kampala.

The hard stance was reached at after the KCCA minister, together with the Minister of State for Transport, toured the bus terminals and taxi parks in downtown Kampala on 30th November 2022 to follow up on complaints by sections of the public.

During the tour, the ministers discovered that there are many brokers in the bus terminals, taxi parks and streets – about 30 brokers were arrested that day.

The ministers also discovered that there were many booking offices on the streets operated by bus owners and brokers, there is constant extortion of passengers by brokers, poor hygiene and that some vehicles lacked licenses to operate, didn’t have route charts and were in dangerous mechanical condition.

Not impressed, the KCCA minister now orders that all booking offices outside the gazetted parks should be closed immediately and that buses and taxis should return to their designated terminals and parks for loading and off-loading.

“All brokers should be removed from bus terminals, taxi parks and the streets with immediate effect. Bus parks and bus owners should arrange to have minimum guides agreed upon between the bus owners and park management,” Kabanda said and encouraged bus operators and taxi operators to use online booking services.

“No vehicle should operate without statutory requirements including PSV, Route Chart and 3rd Party Insurance. The Uganda Police Force and KCCA should immediately start enforcing these measures,” she added.

He explained that the measures are intended to create order and safety of passengers and bring about the organization of public transport in Kampala Central Business District.