Transport fares shoot up

By Christine Nakyeyune

People travelling from Kampala to different parts of the country to celebrate the festive season now have to dig deeper into their pockets and transport fares keep shooting up by the day.

With just a few hours to celebrate Christmas, bus and taxi operators have almost doubled fares for various reasons.

Passengers travelling from Kampala to Busia will now have to part with Shs 50,000, up from 30,000, while on the western route it cost 40,000 to travel to Masaka and 60,000 to Mbarara.

Nelson Ssekandi, the manager of Namayiba Bus Park says most of the taxi and bus operators were compelled to hike the fares due to sky rocketing fuel prices and other operation costs.

Fuel prices increased 2 months ago with a litre of diesel now costing about Shs4,500 while that of petrol costs Shs 4,800.

Ssekandi says a bus travelling from Kampala to Mbale currently consumes fuel worth Shs 1.3m as opposed to Shs 800,000 they were spending before the fuel price increment.

Written by Noelyn Nassuuna