I hadn’t been to Kyenjonjo which is a few kilometers to Fort-Portal though I must say the first section of the road after the Bypass from Kampala is an absolute nightmare as the repairs are still going on.
We were going for an introduction ceremony ‘Kwanjula’ but as we approached Mubende, a traffic cop signals for us to stop which we did. Looks at the vehicle and discovers the Third Party Insurance had expired a week back, which I had myself not noticed. As he did all this, he had already confiscated my driving permit.
The cop anyway went ahead and pulled out his charge sheet. Took all the details from the driving permit and the charge was 40,000/- according to the offence for an expired third party license. The price I'm being charged is way above the price required for the Third Party Insurance for a year.
So he was like when you pay, you can come for your driving permit. I’m from Kampala and I’m now in Mubende where I’m being issued with this charge sheet. There was a Stanbic Bank a few yards away but the very cop told me it had not opened this Saturday may be due to the Easter season. This means that the earliest this fine could be paid in any open bank was on Tuesday.
The problem is driving 165km to Mubende to show the traffic officer that the 40,000/- has been paid before the Driving Permit can be released. Meanwhile, fuel is scarce and the few petrol stations with fuel on this route were charging Shs 3,500 per litre, the road is so bad that at some point we met a yellow KALITA bus that had literally blocked the entire road due to heavy rains forcing us to take an alternative route which was equally a nightmare as we were driving through plantains.
While I agree with the cop, which by the way I told him that I was impressed with the way he works but the issue of retaining my permit and having me to burn 330kms just to pick my Driving Permit is what was not in line with the current times.
If police is issuing express penalty fines and the public is not responding by paying, there can be a number of ways to ensure that people pay and this has worked for companies like Multiplex, whihc is responsible for parking in Kampala. The normal charge for parking for an hour in Kampala is about Shs 400 but for every default on 400 shs, there is an additional 2000 shs. That alone will compel motorists to even pay visits to the parking centers like the post office on Kampala road to cross check if they have any balances, and trust you me, in most cases the outstanding balances are settled. They even have a way of checking for any balances on your parking status with the help of a mobile phone even Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) is doing this now.
I don’t think we will need rocket technology to streamline the following up on defaulters of express penalty schemes who are causing unnecessary bothers to motorists who may not have similar intentions. All in all clamping vehicles or retaining Driving Permits which can only be released after the fine has been paid does not tantamount to a country moving forward or being listed as an achievement for whoever suggested so but coming up with smooth methods that save time and deliver results for all is what we know as moving forward. Mobile Money, Google SMS, UNEB SMS, Advantage Cards, Computerized Driving Permits the list is endless are all examples of moving in the right direction.
