Security has launched investigations into allegations of extortion by some officials at Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), who are accused of demanding millions of shillings from residents along the Kampala–Jinja Highway to spare residents who are encroaching on road reserves.
While UNRA issued an eviction notice of 30 days on April, 2, 2024 threatening forceful eviction in case of refusal to comply, it is reported that some officials have since asked for bribes from encroachers in order to spare them.
“We have received multiple complaints from residents who claim that officials from (UNRA), demands payments ranging from Shs5 million to Shs3 million to halt evictions,” one of the officers investigating the matter said.
Security says it has evidence of one of the officials who allegedly received shs15 million to halt the eviction and that the money was delivered to them at Ndere Cultural Center in Kisaasi.
The same officer is said to have asked shs5 million to bond operators .
On October, 21, 2024, Mr. Johnson Ssejjemba, the Director of Roads Infrastructure and Protection Unit accompanied by the manager enforcement Unit Mr. Robert Tumwine and others toured the road reserve from Nakawa spear motors, Banda stretch to examine the extent of the road reserve encroachment.
During the tour, Ssejjemba informed bond operators that eviction exercise would resume the following week and asked them to vacate the premises.
It is said that some bond operators was asked to collect shs100 million from other bonds along the busy Kampala-Jinja Road as a bribe to save them from eviction.
In a February , 2, 2024 order, the Minister for Works and Transport, Gen Katumba Wamala ordered for the immediate eviction of people who are illegally occupying and trading on the road reserve and walkways, as stipulated by the Road Safety Act passed by Parliament in 2019.
He pointed out that, section 65(1)[e] of the Roads Act, 2019, the act explicitly states that a person conducting a business activity on the shoulder, sidewalk, or road reserve of a public road commits an offense.
Upon conviction, they are liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred sixty-eight currency points, imprisonment not exceeding seven years, or both.
For years, people have been encroaching on road reserves countrywide, using them for business purposes like car dealerships, and others cultivating thus spoiling drainage systems.
These leave pedestrians and cyclists to navigate through narrow and dangerous spaces between parked vehicles and speeding traffic .
