In a move to relocate Entebbe road taxis operators to Usafi Park, Police has been on Tuesday morning heavily deployed at Old Taxi Park in Kampala following protest threats.
Ggaba road taxies have been relocated to the Old Taxi Park and the previous Entebbe stage in the Old Park is now occupied by taxis plying Mukono-Seeta route.
This was a day after Beti Kamya, the Minister for Kampala warned that taxi operators had been given one last chance to vacate the park while those operating at stages along Kampala streets to move into designated taxi parks.
According to Kamya, taxi operators will return to the park after completion of the planned renovation.
“This is not a KCCA directive. Cabinet sat and approved. Those who will try to resist relocation will be forced out by the KCCA enforcement team. We have a government in this country,” Ms Kamya told media on Monday.
Many taxi operators, however, said that they were not alerted about the deadline for relocation.
“No one ever told us that we were to be relocated. We’re just seeing it in the media,” said one of the taxi operators.
Following the minister’s warning, drivers from Entebbe reportedly spent a night in the Old Taxi Park, guarding their stage.
However, eyewitnesses said on Tuesday that police deployed at the park beat them before they drove their cars out as a troop carrier, a teargas truck and police patrol cars with policemen standing guard were sighted near the taxi park
So far, Entebbe taxis are withdrawing from Old Taxi Park through Burton Street near Mega Standard Supermarket, heading to Usafi Park.
Ben Kiwanuka Street which is usually jammed with taxis heading to Entebbe Road has also been cleared as KCCA prepares to revolve the street into a one-way.
