Ugandans plying the Kampala-Juba route are threatening to stage a strike to compel government to act against their mistreatment in Southern Sudan. The affected Ugandans include bus operators, truck drivers and members of the business community. They claim that the situation has become unbearable and can only be tackled by the presidents of both countries.
In their letter addressed to Kale Kayihura, the Inspector General of Police, the group cites fraud, bad contracts, paying undue fines, canning by the South Sudanese, the military and police as of the areas of their concerns. Fredrick Senoga, the spokesperson for the Joint Action Redemption for Uganda Traders in South Sudan says despite the harsh conditions Ugandans will not stop going to Juba because a lot of their money is being held up in debts yet they have bank loans.
Senoga explains that a Sudanese businessman owes him 243 million shillings after he supplied him with building materials but declined to pay.
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Damiano Lwanga Mutujju, a Ugandan contractors operating in South Sudan says that he was cheated after running a garbage collection contract for six months. Will Katende, a bus driver says that he once paid 2100 Sudanese pounds to a South Sudan woman, whom he had given a lift.
He explains that the woman disembarked from the bus and disappeared into a village path but later showed and claimed for money for a special hire to Juba. Katende who bares scars of torture says that, this is just part of the mistreatment they endure each day.
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Hannington Kiwanuka, chairman Uganda Bus Drivers and Allied Association (UBDAA) the mastermind of the strike says that all bus companies plying the South Sudan route have endorsed the strike that will see transport to Juba paralyzed. Kiwanuka says that they held a meeting before with the South Sudan Inspector General of Police, who promised to iron out the problem but didn’t nothing.
He says that about six Ugandan buses and unspecified number of trucks are being held South Sudan police. He says that other trucks whose drivers were killed for violating a traffic rule are still parked in different areas enroute to Juba which requires government intervention.
