By George Bukenya
Following the Kapchorwa tragedy that has claimed about 20 pupils and a school’s Director of King David Junior School, government has come up with stringent measures aimed at deterring such incidences from happening again.
The measures were announced in the inter-ministerial press conference held at Uganda Media center in Kampala and attended by the minister of State for Transport and Works Hon. Julius Magada Wandera, who said that apart from mandatory inspection of all schools’ vehicles used to transport learners to study or tour trip must first be inspected and cleared by the government inspectorate of vehicles and drivers will be issued with special badges.
Wandera said that this will be executed at regional levels centers where even the area police traffic department will be involved in the issuance of a sticker indicating that such a vehicle being used to transport learners for a tour have been inspected and cleared having established that it’s in better mechanical conditions.
“ In an effort to deter such tragedy from occurring again, government will invoke and start enforcing global standards. The automated system we have put in place will help us truck vehicles in dangerous mechanical conditions and any traffic police at any road who will have allowed such a vehicle to continue with its destination will apprehended and prosecuted for negligence,’’ Hon Wandera said
He also revealed that all vehicles transporting learners to any trip should have a universal colour and this will apply to any level of learning because this is a global standard and this will be presented to the ministerial meeting for approval.
The Minister also revealed that his ministry has recruited and trained staffs who will execute the inspection works at the different centers of SGS following government Nationalization of such company and since government taking over of SGS, a total of 346 commercial vehicles have been inspected as an experiment and 300 passed the test, also 187 taxi and personal cars were tested of these 147 passed.
According to the minister, government has seven inspection branches that it took over from SGS company and these include; Namanve along Jinja road, Nabingo, Mbarara , Gulu, Namulanda, Mbale and Kawanda.
Meanwhile government also suspended all study and tour trips for schools and higher institutions of learning and those schools that were already on their way were ordered to stop and report to the nearby police station that will help them to return their respective stations.
The Acting Minister of Education and Sports Dr. John Chrizestom Muyingo said that the ministry is working with police to coordinate the order such that those who were already on their journey should stop and return safely.
He also said that within seven days his ministry will have constituted a committee to investigate the matter of rampant accidents and recommend the way forward.