WHY DOESN’T KCCA CALL FOR TENDERS TO UNDERTAKE THE SERVICES TO DO WITH ENFORCEMENT OF PAYMENT WHAT IS DUE BY TAXIs ON A MONTHLY BASIS?

Jennifer Musisi Executive Director KCCA
The endorsement of UTODA and other Taxi organizations to jointly undertake the role of ensuring that taxi operators in Kampala pay the shs 120,000 due to KCCA is simply a wrong strategy. KCCA may have convinced them to but it is clear that the companies cannot operate in harmony given the past experiences of rivalry and the favours UTODA has overtime got in the taxi industry.
Now that the official charge is payable to KCCA and the Taxi organization assisting in the enforcement is to get payment directly from KCCA, the way to go would have been to tender out the operations so that those capable of doing the work show how they are to undertake the exercise to ensure harmony, good data management and order, and the most competitive and organized company would be awarded the contract. We are well aware that UTODA defaulted on revenue to KCC which up to now may not have been made good. UTODA took KCCA to court because of the patronage they have enjoyed overtime. We are well aware of the role of UTODA in various conflicts where people believed to be party to the organization have assumed roles of the security personnel and acted on behalf of the Government. KCCA should have welcomed such an exercise after clearly expressing what the operator is expected of and whether the organization would be paid according to the number of taxi’s that have paid the revenue and the modern methods of doing business that such a company would apply to ensure that taxi’s are not inconvenienced as was a common experience with the UTODA methods of handling taxi drivers. It is also of great importance to ensure that lost luggage of the travelers is taken care of by promoting a method which is in line with use of modern technology.
Continued inconvenience of travelers by wrong decisions by KCCA is most unfortunate, given that many taxi drivers still see UTODA as inhuman given the way the organization cheated them under the cover of welfare funds.
William Kituuka Kiwanuka
UTODA SUES KCCA OVER CONTRACT
By Anthony Wesaka & Robert Mwanje, 26 October 2011 Comment Uganda Taxi Operators and Drivers Association Ltd (Utoda) yesterday went to court seeking an interim order stopping Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) from taking over the management of public transport.
The move comes a week after KCCA announced that it will directly start managing public transport in the city next month when its contract with Utoda expires. The order is intended to allow the taxi body maintain its status quo until their main application before the same court is heard and determined.
In their application filed before High Court in Kampala last week, Utoda argues that it is unfair for KCCA to take over the operation of the taxis in the city since their contract still runs up to October 2014.
The application for an interim injunction is expected to be heard before one of the Kampala High Court registrars, Isaac Muwata today. "An interim order restraines respondents, their agents from interfering with the applicant's management of taxi operations in the city due to expire in October 2014 pending the determination of the main miscellaneous cause," reads part of the notice of motion by Utoda. The respondents in this case are KCCA and its Executive Director Jennifer Musisi Ssemakula.
The friction between Utoda and KCCA arose on October 18 this year when the latter in its memorandum addressed to among others the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and the division councillors erroneously announced that the taxi operators' contract was expiring at the end of the month.

UTODA: WE HAVE NO MONEY TO PAY KCCA
Taxi Operators and Drivers Association—Utoda has blamed the company’s failure to meet its obligations on the wrangles with the Kampala Capital City Authority—KCCA leaders. This comes a day after Jennifer Ssemakula Musisi, the KCCA executive director threatened to sue Utoda for unpaid taxi park revenue collections totaling to two billion shillings. Story (1 Files) Uganda Taxi Operators and Drivers Association—Utoda has blamed the company’s failure to meet its obligations on the wrangles with the Kampala Capital City Authority—KCCA leaders.
This comes a day after Jennifer Ssemakula Musisi, the KCCA executive director threatened to sue Utoda for unpaid taxi park revenue collections totaling to two billion shillings. Musisi told journalists on Tuesday that she has already directed the KCCA legal team to work out modalities including suing Utoda in a bid to recover the two billion shillings.
Musisi said while KCCA has been insisting that there is no binding contract with Utoda, Kampala High Court Judge Eldad Mwanguhya first ruled to maintain the status quo whereby KCCA allowed the taxi operators to continue collecting the money which did not reach the KCCA accounts.
Justice Mwanguhya dismissed the Utoda petition on grounds that it was not proper before court. Utoda had petitioned court seeking to block KCCA leaders from taking over management of the city taxi parks arguing that their contract was running till 2014.
But Charles Kamya, the Utoda secretary general says KCCA set conditions including payment of 392 million shillings per month, and also the payment of a security guarantee of 10 percent in form of bank guarantees.
Kamya says in the period when the two parties were in court, both Lukwago and Musisi discouraged drivers from paying the daily collections to Utoda.
He explained that Lukwago went ahead to address rallies in both Old and New Taxi Parks ordering the drivers not to pay any money to Utoda.
He adds that Musisi has been making statements denouncing Utoda as an agent of KCCA in the taxi business. Kamya admits the money has now accumulated to two billion shillings but insists that Utoda has no other revenue sources.
In January, Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago complained about Utoda’s failure to remit its daily collections from the two taxi parks to KCCA during the court period.
Lukwago also complained about the manner in which Utoda enforcement teams were harassing and torturing drivers in the course of collecting the daily dues. Utoda has been charging the drivers shillings 20,000 each month for a sticker and another shillings 4,500 per day.

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