Curfew, other SOP enforcement to resume Tuesday, Police warns

Fred Enanga

The Uganda Police Force have announced that starting Tuesday, they will resume erection of roadblocks on various roads leading to the city centre to enforce coronavirus guidelines.

Addressing journalists at the Joint Security briefing at the Uganda Media Centre on Monday afternoon, Fred Enanga, the Police spokesperson said they have realized members of the pubic are no longer adhering to the Standard Operating Procedures put in place by government, noting that it is high time security got tough.

“We have realized most of the people are not adhering to the guidelines. Motorists and businesses are not respecting the 9pm curfew time and Boda boda riders are not respecting the 6pm time,” he said.

Enanga said motorists are carrying more than one passenger, a practice he said is reckless. He added that even downtown Kampala shops remain open beyond the 9pm deadline.

“With effect from Tuesday, the checkpoints and barriers we had in the outskirts of Kampala and major highways will be manned afresh. We are going to ensure they are active during day and night,” Enanga said.

When President Museveni lifted the lockdown, security removed some roadblocks from various roads leading to the city centre but according to Enanga, the grace period by security has been abused by the public.

“We had decided to use “a holistic” approach by sensitizing and letting people use common sense to guard themselves against the spread of the virus but this has not happened,” He said.

Enanga added that some sectors that were restricted have been stealthily operating despite being closed.

“Some sectors like bars have been stealthily operating despite being closed but now we will look at the level of compliance of all the sectors to the COVID SOPs. All territorial commanders have been instructed by the Inspector General of Police to reinvigorate and intensify the enforcement mechanism on COVID-19,” Enanga said.

The police publicist warned that commanders who fail to implement the directive by the Inspector General of Police on enforcement of Coronavirus guidelines risk facing the Police disciplinary court.

As of October, 12 2020, Uganda has 9081 confirmed Coronavirus cases and 6109 of these have successfully recovered and discharged from various hospitals around the country and 93 have died since the first case was registered in March 2020.