By Ndawula Ronald
Taking stock of the fuel crisis in Uganda you may think the country is on self-drive mode.
When you look at why the health officials wanted to charge $30 from truckers and passengers entering Uganda you wonder what the agenda was!
If you test someone it doesn’t mean he/she can’t contract Covid-19.
Secondly, it doesn’t mean that after testing you’re entering a safe haven where there’s no covid risk.
When you test and take days without producing the results is not only laughable but strange to be polite!
How do people interested in making a buck put a whole country at ransom because a few officers wanted to get money?
If you’re putting mandatory testing at border points, you should also test all passengers be it taxis and buses plus boda boda because it’s all travel and covid is everywhere not at border points only.
My pain comes from the silence of the leaders under the circumstances.
This is a situation which warranted immediate reaction and should have been addressed without porridge on tv as an emergency.
I saw Hon. Prime minister Nabbanja loss of words because this requires heads to roll or someone worth his salt to resign.
It looks like the Captain has engaged the auto pilot and no one cares about the plight of Ugandans.
Getting hawkers off the Kampala streets and denying them to work, access other towns, is strange and laughable.
This group is the type who against all odds decided to work instead of being law breakers.
No one can enjoy hawking if you have an alternative option.
Can government create alternative employment to help these people get off hawking as the suitable way to keep them off the streets?
Hawkers are everywhere even in the first world.
You can buy freshly cooked maize, cloth and sliced pawpaw on the streets in Guangzhou and Bombay but the city remains clean.
Nothing cleans the city than paving all areas including footpaths and roadsides.
With dust everywhere in the city planned before independence the attempt to make it clean is vain.
Boda boda are many because it’s our level and mode of transport.
What’s the percentage number of people who have cars a d those who don’t?
Boda boda offers a quicker a d cheaper alternatives to a poor population who can’t afford cars.
By opening a war on sector of Boda boda and hawkers government is shooting itself in the foot.
It’s now proven that Uganda is insecure and can be on its knees in less than a week despite the many military arsenal bought every day!
If our reserves can hold fuel for 10 days and America has reserves to keep it going for 20 years and food for 10 years without buying and producing, then President Museveni should know it was not possible for Uganda to help Libya to resuscitate Gaddafi’s government because we can’t afford.. to secure ours .
Ndawula Ronald, the Author is the former Chairperson of Luwero district
