Taxi drivers want curfew hours adjusted

Part of the Jinja taxi park.

Jinja, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  Jinja Taxi Drivers and Operator’s Association -JITOA has asked President Museveni to adjust the curfew time. The diver’s body says the commencement of curfew times as announced by the President  limits them to one route or less per day. 

The Association says if the curfew commencement hour remains as it has been over the last two months, many of the operators are unlikely to make ends meet in terms of daily earnings. The Association suggests that the curfew commencement should be pushed to 10:00 PM instead of 7:00 PM.  

Ali Mudoola, a driver from Bugiri says there are 21 taxi drivers along the Jinja-Bugiri route and all of them cannot have passengers on their return to Jinja. 

“Although we are limited to eight passengers on board, there are many drivers plying on this route and it is hard for all of us to complete a single route in just 12 hours per day,” he says. 

Joseph Bagenda, a driver from Jinja to Mukono says that, due to the hiked transport fares, taxi operators are likely to spend an hour to load passengers. He says with such limitation, mots drivers will not be able to operate within the curfew deadline.

Farouk Jomba, a driver from Kampala stage says with the heavy traffic jam along Jinja-Kampala highway, many of the drivers can not make a round trip within the curfew deadlines.

Sulah Kalevu fears that many of them are likely to end up in losses if they can not make a round trip given the high fuel prices. He says its from the second trip of a journey that a driver is able to earn money for need by owner of the car and to foot other costs. 

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