The traffic police in Kampala metropolitan area have so far collected Shillings 1.1billion in the ongoing operations against penalty defaulters. Senior Superintendent of Police -SSP Rogers Nsereko Kauma, the Kampala traffic police commander, said the money has been collected in the seven days’ operations excluding last weekend.
Traffic police through Senior Commissioner of Police -SCP Fred Enanga and traffic police spokesperson Assistant Superintendent of Police -ASP Faridah Nampiima on August 19th announced that a decision had been taken by police leadership to impound all vehicles with unpaid tickets for flouting traffic regulations.
“Do not ignore paying a traffic ticket because it is an obligation for a traffic violator or defaulter, to respond to a traffic ticket within the stipulated time. Failure to do so will be deemed guilty by the law. As a result, one may face a surcharge for late payment of 50%, or have their motor vehicle impounded, their driving license not renewed, pending clearance of the traffic ticket, or taken to court. All these actions may be very inconvenient, disruptive, or costly,” ASP Nampiima said.
Enanga and Nampiima said money worth Shillings 8 billion was in the hands of drivers violating road regulations. The duo declared that the operations were to start on August 22 which was Monday of last week. SSP Kauma has told Daily Press Uganda (DPN) that the first day of the operations against penalty defaulters resulted in the collection of Shillings 142.8million.
On the second, traffic collected Shillings 146.3million, Shillings 209.7million was collected on the third day, Shillings 191.6 million was collected on the fourth day, and Shillings 197.4million was collected on the fifth day.
SSP Kauma’s explanation means traffic police collected over Shillings 888 million in the first week of the operations against penalty defaulters. This week, traffic police on Monday collected Shillings 210.5 million while on Tuesday over Shillings 190 million was collected. Therefore, in the seven days of operations, more than Shillings 1.1billion has been collected.
“When one claims that the tickets were lost, we re-issue a new ticket with its surcharge which one must pay in order to be handed back his or her vehicle. If your ticket was Shillings 100,000 and you failed to pay within 28 days, the fresh one we give you contains the surcharge and it will be Shillings 150,000,” SSP Kauma explained.
Some drivers have however found themselves in a bitter exchange with traffic officers after finding that their vehicles have unpaid tickets yet they cleared them several days or months ago. SSP Kauma and ASP Nampiima have advised all drivers with tickets still existing in the system despite having cleared them to visit room 47 at Nateete police station. The duo has warned that confronting a traffic officer on lawful duty could earn you more penalties.