Just a few minutes to 7pm, Boda Boda riders are rushing to beat curfew following President Museveni’ decision to move it from 6pm.
Today, the country officially goes curfew free, marking full reopening of the night life economy.
According to Fred Enanga the police spokesperson, tonight marks the beginning of night life and its journey to rebuild itself. He told journalists at Naguru today that this includes a wide range of activity in towns and city centres between the hours of 7pm and 6am, including pubs, clubs, cafes, restaurants, retail, cinemas, theatres, concerts and transport.
Enanga explained that most revelers are excited, but warned that all Ugandans should be keen to adhere to the health and safety protocols required to reduce the spread of the virus, because mask wearing and social distancing requirements are very lax in night clubs, bars and discos.
“The re-opening comes with an increase in numbers of new cases. Therefore, it is important that we carefully manage the re-opening in the safest possible way. These include ventilation systems in all venues, sanitation stations, throughout all clubs, increased frequency of cleaning schedules and the deployment of highly trained staff, who are well versed in crowd management controls” he said.
Enanga said that the curfew restrictions on movement of bodabodas, were moved from 6pm to 7pm and noted that to avoid any inconveniences and disruptions, the public, riders and passengers of boda bodas and motorcycles are reminded to observe the new curfew provisions.
“Otherwise the bodaboda enforcement operations are still on. All revelers must be keen and take into consideration, their travel arrangements when moving at night. This is because the movement of bodabodas is still restricted from 5:30am to 7pm” Enanga warned.
Away from the challenges of COVID-19, he reminded all the re-opened sectors about the threat of terrorism, posed by individual actors and small groups inspired primarily by ADF. Adding that some of these hangout places are soft targets.
“Although we have greatly disrupted some of the real threats posed by these terrorists, they still remain determined on causing harm to Ugandans and other citizens in the country, which calls for extra vigilance as we go about our daily activities.”
