UPC supports bus owners for suspending operations

By Charles Katabalwa

23^rd Aug 2023

The opposition Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) has backed the Uganda Bus Owners Association (UBOA) move to suspend bus operations over what they describe as unfair park user fees.

Bus owners under the Uganda Bus Owners Association (UBOA) suspended operations from Tuesday following the Kampala Capital City Authority’s (KCCA) decision to block buses from leaving the parks over unpaid fees.

According to KCCA, each bus is supposed to pay Shs2.4 million annually as user park fees but at the same time its alleged that busses pay the amount of 50,000 shillings before they leave their respective terminals to different destinations which KCCA has refuted to have received any revenue from the busses.

Bus owners say Shs2.4 million per bus instead of the Shs72.6 million which was supposed to be paid annually was reached after a presidential intervention which led to the suspension of the later sum of money in 2016 but still bus owners say it’s too high given the state of business performance at the moment.

While addressing journalists at party headquarters in Kampala at Uganda house, the UPC Spokesperson Sharon Arach noted that the government collects lots of revenue from the buses but the roads are in a bad shape, fuel prices are so high therefore UBOA’s decision to strike is genuine and the government should intervene.

Arach also cites school children that are using buses to return home for second term holidays are stranded in bus parks with other travelers which calls for the government, Ministry of Works and Transport to intervene and find a lasting solution to the situation.

Arach used the same briefing to congratulate Ugandan long-distance runner Joshua Cheptegei for winning another gold medal in the 10,000m race at the 2023 World Athletics Championships currently taking place in Budapest, Hungary, with a call to the government to invest in athletics and other talents right from the grass root levels because it’s one of the avenues of selling Uganda internationally but also a source of revenue in the country.