During President Yoweri Museveni’s last address on Monday, June 1, 2020, about COVID-19 in which he allowed public means of transport like taxis, buses, and trains to resume work, he made it clear that boda bodas and tricycles popularly known as tuku tukus should wait for COVID-19 to be over so they can resume carrying passengers.
This is because they cannot observe social distancing, as the passenger sits very close to the rider, something that would cause them to spread the virus. The President advised them to keep on carrying luggage as they have been doing in the past two months or so.
Today, tuku tuku riders who ply the routes of Nakawuka from Nateete have begged Museveni to allow them to resume work as he did for taxis. They say that they can carry two passengers, which is half of the full capacity of four so that they also observe social distancing.
The chairman of Nateete tuku tuku stage Ali Kato has said that the riders no longer get luggage to carry more often and that sometimes some of them go for days without earning a single coin. Kato says that this has escalated their hunger wars, as most of them did not even get the government relief food.