UTOF top leadership responds, Ssemakade and Ssemwanje’s are in office unlawfully

9 April 2025, 10:29 am

By Ronald Ssemagonja

During his tenure as the head of security in Kampala (RCC), Huudu Husein was instructed to make sure that fights and disputes among taxi operators end. In this, he decided to invite the famous parties that were involved, and after a lengthy discussion with them, they decided to create ways of promoting peace in taxi parks and appointed Mr Sekindi Rashid as their leader and Mr Mayambala Mustafa, his deputy, among others. It is against this background that Ssemakade Nsobya one of the members of the Federation of Uganda Taxi Operators (UTOF) to state that the current leadership should not be recognized because its tenure of interim for two years ended.

“I’m one of those who started long route stages in taxi parks. I started them because I wanted all taxi drivers and conductors to work peacefully without any hindrance from those who operate within town service routes, but Sekindi Rashid came and disorganized our peace. He has been telling lies to government that he is the chairperson of UTOF, which is not true. They started a new taxi park in Bwaise which brought confusion. That’s why you see, there is problems in that park they put up. We appeal to the president to come to our rescue and we operate as we used to before. We want that park on Bogere’s land closed,” Ssemakade said.

Additionally, Rashid Lumaani, who identified himself as a taxi driver and UTOF coordinator in Bwaise, stated that the top leadership of UTOF drafted a constitution, minus consulting them as key stakeholders. “When you are drafting a constitution, it is not for you only, but for all the members. Sekindi Rashid and others sat somewhere without our knowledge, and drafted a constitution which permits them to lead the drivers and conductors for another five years. That is wrong and we can’t accept that. That is why we have come up and raised our voices. They had two years, and those two elapsed. Now we should vote for a new leadership. We need to have a constitution which favours everyone not a group of people,” he submitted.

In his response to the above claims, the chairperson UTOF, Rashid Sekindi, gave a background of how they came into leadership and outlined their progress and way forward. He was talking to leaders of different taxi parks, at their headquarters in Kampala. “A lot has been done in our leadership. We have managed to make sure that peace prevails in taxi parks. This as you all know wasn’t the case before we met the then the RCC for Kampala Huudu Husein some time back. We have made sure that all parks have their leadership selected by the members of those stages and this has reduced unnecessary fights and wrangles. We can’t explain everything but a lot has been done including our SSACCO where a member can go and apply for a loan and pays back with a very low interest. Therefore, where we have gone wrong, forgive us because we are not angels. We make mistakes and we are ready to be corrected,” he explained.

About Ssemakade and others, Sekindi said that Semakade is the one who was causing confusion in Bwaise taxi Park. “Semakade used to collect Shillings 1 million from the drivers and conductors every day, but he misused the money with his few people. And that is why he was forcefully removed from the Park,” he said. Mayambala Mustafa, the deputy chairperson in charge of administration, said that they are not going to conduct any election until the right time because there is no need for that and they are operating lawfully. “There is no election that is going to be organized because there is no need for that, until the right time comes,” he said. The leadership also used the meeting to suspend their head of youth sports and culture affairs, Ssemwanje Sadat for misconduct and insubordination and was sent to their disciplinary committee. This was done under Article 81 (a) of their Constitution.