Traffic wardens turned us into source of income – Mbarara boda boda riders
Aaron Ainomugisha.
Boda boda riders around Mbarara city can now breathe following the removal of traffic wardens from streets and roads within Mbarara city as directed by Mayor Robert Kakyebezi.
This followed the death of a boda boda rider Moses Kafeero, 38, who was run over by a car at independence park on October 20, 2020 around 7 pm as he attempted to run away from a traffic warden Ssenoga Umar alias Kyabura who is still in police cells at Mbarara CPS.
As a result of the incident, at least 1000 boda boda riders led by their city chairman Sedias Ayebazibwe paralyzed business and spent a whole day in running battles with police prompting authorities to withdraw traffic wardens around the city.
Sadias now says it’s his mandate to work with city and district leadership to ensure that boda boda riders respect the law but they won’t allow wardens in Mbarara city.
Mbarara city has about 40,000 boda boda riders including those that work at night and their leadership is working with authorities to address various challenges.
The operators we spoke to challenged the government to pay its workers to fight corruption because even some traffic police officers do extort.
Some expressed hope that their income is going to increase because traffic wardens won’t extort money from them.
‘They can see you, count shs50, 000 and you must pay or else you go to police with your motorcycle and you pay higher than that,’ a rider opposite Centenary Bank narrated.
Another boda boda rider at Ntare stage said it was a habit to impound motorcycles and extort money because wardens turned them into a source of income.
Mayor Robert Kakyebezi maintained that he won’t allow such ill acts to ‘break backs of his people.’
