The police have vowed not to release motorcycles impounded for flouting curfew hours despite the President lifting the restrictions on their night operations.
On Sunday, Museveni, while speaking at 41 anniversary of Uganda People’s Defence Forces commonly known as Tarehe Sita, in Mbale City lifted the 7 pm curfew on motorcyclists. The President said starting with today, all Boda-boda riders will be free to operate at any time of the hour just like taxis, buses, private cars, and other sections of the night economy.
Asked on whether police would release the impounded Boda-bodas since curfew has been removed, Fred Enanga, also police spokesperson, said no motorcycle will be released before paying the Express Penalty tickets.
Enanga added that during the curfew operations that have been on for close to two years, many motorcycles were discovered to have been stolen and the current owners do not have any document to prove ownership.
“The directive did not say the Bodaboda should be given to owners. They had been impounded for violating curfew. They must pay fines for violating curfew. Some were impounded because they were stolen. Many do not have documents and we want to tell people that we shall not just release all motorcycles,” Enanga said.
To date, most major police stations in Kampala Metropolitan are filled with dozens or hundreds of motorcycles that were impounded during curfew hours. On average, police records show 2,000 motorcycles could be impounded every week in various parts of the country but more than 60 percent were always in the Kampala Metropolitan area.
Boda-boda riders have explained that their efforts to pick impounded motorcycles would be frustrated by police officers who would demand a lot of money. Fred Ssekyanzi explained that whenever a motorcycle is impounded, he would need not less than 100,000 Shillings to pay to police officers in order to regain it.
Musoke Aramathan says many of his colleagues ride motorcycles for their bosses or on loans. But when they try to explain to police officers, they insist that money must be paid in order to release the motorcycles.
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