“Order is not oppression—it’s breathing space,” a Jinja shopkeeper muttered as Town Clerk Godfrey B. Kisekka releases another circular rippling through council corridors and streets.
The latest PUBLIC NOTICE orders buses and taxis off streets and roadsides to the gazetted Kutch Road Park by Sunday 22 March 2026 or face forceful enforcement from Monday 23rd March.
“at your cost, peril and embarrassment,” it warns, with copies to the RCC, RPC, traffic chief and every department head including the Division Mayors.
The directive follows a sweeping hygiene and trade order: clean the tourism belt from Source of the Nile to Mayor’s Gardens, the Source of the Nile Agriculture and Trade show grounds, ban street‑sleeper vending, protect wetlands, stop garbage dumping in Masese and Amber Court corridors, curb makeshift stalls, and kiosks, and limit markets to gazetted sites.
Kisekka in his march 13th memo argues that the move brings order, cleanliness, safety, fewer accidents and higher local revenue—and that no one legally owns a bay inside the parks.
For now, the orders are famous because they arrive with politics in a coma; exhausted candidates: losers nursing empty pockets and winners waiting to take office in May—have little breath to spin the directive into what they think is “oppression” theatre.
The silence helps enforcement: no professional populist will raise a finger, especially after some losers privately asked Town Hall to squeeze voters who “chewed” their cash, while winners tacitly welcome a cleaner stage for their term.
Even outgoing Mayor Alton Peter Kasolo, once nicknamed Okochaa is keeping quiet. After residents voted him out despite campaigning that he, unlike others never grabbed even a 1×1 meter of city land, he is quietly of the view that Jinja gets what Jinja voted for.
“Forceful enforcement will start on Monday 23rd March,2026 at your cost, peril and embarrassment, expect no other warning, hence voluntary compliance encouraged”, concludes Kisekka’s one-page forceful memo.
In simple terms this means that Town hall will not send a second notice so voluntary compliance is now, enforcement on 23 march is automatic, and operators who defy it bear the costs; fines, towing or impounding and arrests in case of obstruction of enforcement personnel executing their lawful duties and of course public embarrassment.
Legally Kisekka has given what is referred to as ‘reasonable notice’ under the relevant laws meaning penalties can kick in immediately.
Residents have welcomed safer walkways and a prettier city but grumble that Council should also tackle the messy roads full of potholes which become mini lakes or illegal swimming pools for birds and stray dogs and cats.
When Will Town Hall Handle Boda-boda
Boda-boda cyclists remain the unchecked variable: thousands weave through traffic, fueling daily crashes, maiming and deaths, still untouched by Town Hall.
They spawl onto walkways and leave stages strewn with rubbish. Organizing them is a headache because any single accident triggers pack instinct, mobs’ descent, ‘justice’ turns into beatings, torched vehicles and street blockades.
So, any attempt by the Kisekka led team is likely to bump into that hive-mind resistance.
Uganda’s police data gives the scale,2024 saw 25,107 road crashes nationwide, killing 5,144 people, motorcyclists mostly boda-boda riders and passengers accounted for 1,720 deaths up 13% on 2023 and roughly 46-47% of all road fatalities.
In a typical week May 2024 ,29 of 65 deaths were motor cyclists with careless overtaking and speed driving most crashes.
On the Jinja corridor, boda-bodas feature in headline tragedies, for example a Jinja-Malaba tax-trailer pile-up triggered by a cyclist left 12 dead.
The pattern is very clear boda-bodas are involved in nearly half of fatal crashes with overtaking, speeding and red-light violations and carrying more than one passenger as leading causes.
