MASINDI— Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) faces backlash from Northern Uganda MPs over discriminatory charging of passengers on the Murchison road.
“What is going on is that they are selective. They are allowing these people to pass and use this road selectively. The UN cars are being allowed to access the road freely. The government vehicle with red number plates are accessing the road freely. They skilled personnel, police officers, the soldiers’ cars, they are being allowed to go. But the civilian cars, those who are traveling from Kampala, going to West Nile, going to Acholi, going to Lango, they are still being asked to pay the money. What we are now saying as members of Parliament from the north is that we condemn the discriminative charging of people,” said Gilbert Olanya and Rose Abigah.
Gilbert Olanya, representing Kilak South, and Rose Abigah, the woman member of parliament representing Terego District, exchanged words with UWA officials for some good minutes as they were asked to pay money to use the road.
“If you look at it critically, Queen Elizabeth in Western Uganda. If you are passing from Kasese to Mbarara, you pass via Queen Elizabeth, free of charge, and vehicles are moving freely. If you are moving from Mbarara to Masaka, you pass via Lake Mburo National Park. People move free of charge. If you pass via Fort Portal to Bundibugyo, you pass via Semuliki National Park, people are moving free of charge. Then why is it? The only road to Northern Uganda is being charged and by 7 pm, exactly you stop people from movement. This is discrimination and biasness. We need all vehicles to continue passing from here without paying,” they added.
According to them, “We did not ask the government to close Karuma, but on condition, that is why we are passing from here to Masindi up to Kampala. So we don’t want biases and discrimination from this government. We don’t know that nonsense, and it must stop beginning on Monday next week, which is tomorrow, no one shall be charged on this road the moment they are charging our people, we shall come and disorganize this rule.”
“As a woman Member of Parliament for Terego, I did not write a letter to Terego that I want to be your daughter. I didn’t write a letter to God that let me be born of West Nile. It’s by nature. It is God who has created me from Terego, and I cannot allow seeing my people being charged just because they cannot have any other access route. We did not block Karuma. It’s because there is already a problem. The road has been blocked because they are working on the bridge. Now, where do they expect us to pass from? We shall not pay on this road. On Monday, we shall come here if we find anybody paying, we shall cause the biggest havoc,” Rose Abigah said, adding that they are people’s representatives, and the people are complaining of mistreatment on this road.
