The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The police has collected 909 million shillings from the express penalties issued to riders and motorists flouting traffic regulations and the Covid-19 guidelines.
According to police records, security personnel arrested more than 11,500 people during lockdown but only 2,117 were taken to court as repeated offenders. Police issued a 40,000 Shillings express penalty ticket to each of the 16,403 impounded motorcycles hence collecting 656 million shillings.
An express penalty ticket of 100,000 shillings was issued to each of the 2,531 impounded cars and 253 Million Shillings was realized.
This data is from June 6 when President Museveni announced the closure of education institutions, ban on inter-district movement and later the total lockdown. It shows that cyclists were the most category of people that defied the orders intended to control the spread of Covid-19.
Criminal Investigations Directorate-CID data reveals that police accompanied by sister security agencies on average arrested 2,000 people, impounded 3,000 motorcycles and 500 cars per week throughout the last 54 days of lockdown.
Lawrence Niwabiine, the acting director of Traffic Police said boda boda cyclists were the majority group which violated both traffic and road safety regulations as well as the Covid-19 orders.
“Most of the express penalty tickets we issued out were about violating road safety regulations. Most of these people were boda-boda riders. It is the most chaotic. We cautioned a number of them and those we gave tickets were violating the regulations almost every day,” CP Niwabiine said.
Uganda Prison Service Spokesperson Frank Baine says arrests made during lockdown have rapidly increased the number of inmates in all government prisons across the country. Baine said the prisoners were about 64,000 before lockdown but have since increased to more than 65,000.
Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga says security will continue to arrest whoever is violating Covid-19 directives. Enanga reminds Ugandans that Covid-19 is still rampant and therefore security will make sure guidelines intended to curb the spread are respected.
Although cars and motorcycles were impounded across the country, Kampala metropolitan area that includes Kampala City, Wakiso and Mukono districts topped the list of people violating Covid-19 guidelines.
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