The executive director of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), Ms Dorothy Kisaka, has asked political leaders in the city to mobilise boda boda cyclists to participate in the ongoing census.
Ms Kisaka told this publication in an interview yesterday that the census is key to proper planning of the City.
“We appeal to all our political leaders to mobilise their constituents to go for the census. It is important that the people get onto the system so that planning is effected,” she said.
Kisaka’s appeal follows the low turn up of boda boda cyclists registered at most registration centres in the five divisions of Nakawa, Makindye, Lubaga, Central, and Kawempe.
The registration exercise that is organised by KCCA commenced on August 15 and will end on August 30.
When the Mania Media visited some of the registration centres yesterday, including Old Kampala Secondary School, Bat Valley Primary School, and Kawempe Mbogo Primary School, neither KCCA officials nor boda boda cyclists had turned up for the exercise.
In other designated census centres, the turn up was low. At Makerere Primary School, the parish internal security officer, Mr Deogratius Matovu, who was in charge of verifying the documents presented by boda boda riders, said only six cyclists had turned up for the exercise.
In Nakawa Division, the cyclists, who turned up at Nakawa Community Hall, picked the registration forms and left.
Mr Ronald Mukisa, a boda boda rider in Nakawa, blamed the stalled process on KCCA officials who did not sensitise them on the activity.
“I delayed coming to register because I did not know about the exercise. I have just heard of it from a friend,” he said.
The chairperson for boda boda cyclists in Makerere I Parish, Kawempe Division, Mr Joseph Okware, also said many cyclists were ignorant about the registration requirements.
The registration requirements include a duly filled application form, National Identity Card, letters from the LC and the Parish Internal Security Officer.
The chairperson of the boda boda cyclists in Kawempe 1 Parish, Mr Godfrey Ssenteza, who was in charge of overseeing the registration exercise at Kawempe Mbogo Primary School, said no member had registered at the centre by yesterday.
The vice secretary for Makerere I Parish, Mr Joseph Mukulu, decried the low turn up, but advised his colleagues to embrace government programmes.
However, Ms Kisaka said she is optimistic the exercise will be successful. “This is day two of the fourteen day exercise and we trust that it will gain traction. Our division teams led by the five town clerks are coordinating the action on the ground. We intend to intensify media coverage and also use the support of the 478 KCCA councillors,” she said.
Background
In 2011, Ms Jenifer Musisi, the then executive director of Kampala Capital City Authority, carried out a census of all commercial motorcycles, popularly known as boda bodas.
The exercise was intended to streamline the transport system under the authorities’ new city arrangement. The process didn’t yield much results. In 2020, KCCA unveiled a plan to ban boda bodas from the city centre and create free zones outside the Central Business District. The initiative was, however, suspended on legal grounds.
