Regulate. Regulate. Regulate.

The new laws

Uganda has recently passed laws and proposed bills that some critics and members of the public have termed as ‘repressive’ and brought to only benefit President Museveni who wants to contest for the 6th term come 2021.

“Why is the government squeezing us so hard in anything we try to do for a living?” asked Geoffrey Egesa, one of the owners of a 14-seater taxi operating in Kampala.

Egesa’s frustration is in line with a July 17 move by the Minister of Works and Transport, Monica Ntege Azuba to table a bill in Parliament seeking to force taxi operators countrywide to belong to some form of an organisation/association to be granted a public service vehicle licence.

The proposed bill dubbed ‘Traffic and Road Safety Act 1998 (Amendment), 2019’ is facing resistance from several other taxi owners and drivers.

“The government has reached a point where it wants to get blood out of the stone,” Egesa said.

The taxi operators’ protest is just one sign of how the government’s recent plans to come up with numerous laws is going to make life much harder for the population, which  is already grappling with high levels of unemployment, poverty and other problems.

With low levels of industrial growth and limited government efforts to create more jobs in state institutions, the stakeholders in the taxi business, fear they would be out of work, a scenario that would lead to further widening of income inequality and increase in crime.

Over the past three decades, since the end of the civil war in 1986, with the coming into power of President Museveni, the country has followed the advice of the west and opened up its economy for trade, while keeping inflation and public debt in control.

While it has been praised for its efforts towards restoring peace and stability and growing the economy, unemployment and poverty have remained largely problematic to handle.

Now with new laws coming into action, experts warn, the situation could soon worsen and put Museveni’s government at risk.

The proposed Traffic and Road Safety Act 1998 (Amendment) Bill, 2019, seeks to ensure that taxi operators countrywide belong to a company, registered associations, partnerships or Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies so as to be given a public service vehicle (PSV) licence.

The taxi operator will also be required to give a six month notice to the government prior to making a decision to quit the business or be fined between Shs600,000-Shs6million.

The bill also forbids a person to engage in the repair, trade, manufacture, deal in new, second hand or reconditioned motor vehicles, trailers or engineering plant without having an approved place of business or in possession of a licence issued by government.

Failure to adhere to the law grants that individual a fine of Shs2million or a one-year imprisonment.

Among the other recently proposed laws are; the Sugar Bill 2016 and National Coffee Bill 2018 – which are targeting sectors that employ a substantial number of the population.

The proposed Sugar Bill 2016 seeks to limit establishment of new sugar processing firms in the already existing ones within a radius of 25 kilometres.

It also seeks to force sugarcane farmers or out growers supply their cane to the sugar processing firm within their zone, a move that would place farmers, majority of whom already live in poverty, at the mercy of the sugar milers.

The National Coffee Bill 2018 on the other hand, which the government has also introduced to parliament seeks to regulate all on-farm and off-farm activities in the coffee value chain, repealing the existing – Uganda Coffee Development Authority Act, 1991 – that only looked at issues of off-farm activities.

The government, through the Uganda Coffee Development Authority, intends to regulate the coffee value chain by registering all coffee farmers, coffee nursery operators and coffee value chain actors countrywide.

The Bill will also give mandate to UCDA to carry out land evaluation  to determine whether or not it is suitable for coffee growing as well provide extension services to coffee farmers, a step that critics say is ‘already dead on arrival.’

The bill proposes a 2-year jail term or Shs960,000 fine for a farmer who fails to take good care of their coffee plantation, poorly stored wet cherries, operates un registered coffee nursery, or harvests or found in possession of immature cherries.