RCCs to continue with registration of boda bodas amid lawsuit

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Kampala Resident City Commissioners have vowed to continue with the ongoing boda-boda registration despite a petition by the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago challenging the directive by the Minister for KCCA, prohibiting all unregistered boda bodas from operating in the Kampala Metropolitan Area.

Anderson Burora, the Resident City Commissioner for Rubaga Division says that the campaign to regulate the boda boda business in the city is to continue as scheduled despite attempts by the Lord Mayor to halt the process.

The exercise will continue as the RCCs meet the Lord Mayor Lukwago to harmonize on the areas of contention. The RCCs say that they have written to the Lord Mayor to draw him into discussions and make him understand the importance of the exercise in formalizing the informal transport sector into a legally binding structure that pays taxes and ensures the safety of the road user, passengers, and property.

On July 11th, 2022, the Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA Executive Committee petitioned the High Court for a judicial review of the directive by Kyofatogabye Kabuye, the Minister for KCCA prohibiting all unregistered boda bodas from operating in the Kampala Metropolitan Area.

Led by the City Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, the Deputy Lord Mayor Doreen Nyanjura, and councilors Olive Namazzi, John Mary Ssebuwufu, and Kizza Hakim Sawula, the executive filed its petition before the Civil Division of the High Court in Kampala against the Attorney General, Minister for Kampala Capital City Authority, and Kampala Resident City Commissioner.

According to the suit, the minister together with the Rubaga Deputy RCC, Anderson Burora further decreed that the boda boda cyclists allowed in Kampala have been reduced to only 7,000 out of 200,000 who operate and do business in Kampala at specified stages and do business within KMP.

On this, they argued that KCCA should put in place an ordinance to regulate public transport, boda bodas inclusive. Still, this exercise has been reportedly thwarted by the directives under contention. The petitioners now want the court to issue an injunction restraining the respondents and their agents from implementing all the directives in their suit and declaring them null and void.

Burora adds that the RCCs will not wait for the ordinance regulating public transport, boda bodas inclusive to be rolled out, but the collected information from the boda-boda registration exercise will be used to feed the policy when it is rolled out.

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