[UAH] news

The minister of state for transport Stephen Chebrot has constituted a committee to handle the drivers' grievances in Eastern Uganda about the new traffic laws.

The minister who was accompanied by the inspector of police Gen Kale Kayihura and the minister for lands, housing and urban development Daudi Migereko was addressing drivers for eastern region at Jinja town hall.

Mr Chebrot said the committee will listen to representatives of the drivers and later submit a report to him and the police in one month.

Another cardinal role of the committee will be sensitizing drivers about the new traffic rules and laws before police embarks on enforcing them.

The minister however told the drivers that the new traffic laws are already in operation effective this month and therefore could not be abolished or suspended since it was an act of parliament intended to ensure safety on the road and combat carnage.

He asked the drivers together with passengers to abide by the standing laws of the land for a harmonious leaving.

The inspector general of police and the commissioner for traffic police Stephen Kasiima called upon police officers to act professionally and within the confinements of the law.

Gen Kayihura also faulted drivers for staging a strike immediately after filing their petition to the concerned authorities.

"Every grievance takes time to be addressed but even before your complaint was received by the minister and other authorities you were already protesting and demanding immediate action, this is not possible even if its was God" Kayihura said.

He noted that discipline among drivers was paramount and a preliquiste.

However, the pronouncement by the minister and police officers angered drivers who came out of the meeting complaining and threatening to resume their strike.

Hajji Khalid Muyingo, the chairman for drivers' association Eastern region's plea to ask fellow drivers to calm down were given little attention as drivers insisted that the laws were unfair and unbearable.

Farouk Kalerwa, a driver along Jinja-Kamuli said that there was need for a collective effort of all drivers to lay down their tools peacefully as the only means to alert the parliament about the unfairness of the law the consented to.