Taxi operators using the Old Taxi Park have appealed to the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), to sort out their differences with the development partners so as to reopen the park before schools reopen.
In May 2020, KCCA closed the park to commence renovations for three months but it has failed to reopen the park to date despite works being partially done.
The taxi operators claim that despite disputes surrounding compensation and ownership being settled, the reopening process is still delayed.
KCCA Council resolved to open the park on October 20 as works continue; a decision that hit a snag after five companies sued KCCA for trespassing on their land and secured an interim injunction halting the re-opening. The companies represented by their lawyer Nasser Serunjoji told the court that in mid-2020, KCCA started renovating the park and in August, they realized that KCCA had encroached on part of their land.
They asked KCCA to stop the encroachment and following several meetings, the operators entered a consent agreement with KCCA in December 2020 in which they agreed that KCCA shall grant them their plots after completing works on the carpet.
The Chairman of Taxi Owners Association, Gard Mugisha, says greed and self-interest have delayed the re-opening of the park.
He is calling on the KCCA Executive Director Dorothy Kitaka to intervene and institute a committee to handle issues of reopening the park.
Moses Birungi Mawejje, the Spokesperson of Kampala Operational Taxi Stages Association-KOTSA says that they have held several meetings with KCCA. Birungi is asking that the park be reopened before the end of the month to ease the movement of passengers just as the economy is fully re-opening.
KCCA Deputy Spokesperson Robert Kalumba said that KCCA is working with taxi operators and the Ministry of Works and Transport to organize stages in the park and issue route charts to all taxis. He says the park shall be opened soon .
