The Minister of State for Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and metropolitan affairs Benny Namugwanya Bugembe has said that the KCCA is moving to remove all posters that have been pinned on pedestrian lanes.
It should be noted that on July 7, 2020, KCCA issued guidelines on the display of campaign posters in the city which prohibited among others; mounting posters on security lights and in non-gazetted places.
“The Ministry has observed the continued haphazard placement of advertisements in form of fliers, posters, placards and billboards on places that are not authorized. These posters obstruct pedestrians and motorists from easily navigating through the city as well as cause uncontrolled noise in the city and they ought to be removed,” she said
Speaking to the press at Uganda Media Centre on Friday, Namugwanya added that it is also illegal to put posters on security lights.
“These lights are there for a security reason, we have managed to remove some of the posters pinned on security lights.” she added
Namugwanya noted that these posters cause excessive littering and some end up in water trenches causing silt and blockage in the water channels.
“These posters in non-gazetted places lead to accidents, blockage of walkways, increased littering that has also led to blockage of the drainage system,” Namugwanya revealed.
These acts, she said, contravene section 97 (4) of the National Environment Management Act, 2019 which provides for prohibition of littering.
“A person shall not place, deposit or allow any waste to be placed or deposited on his or her premises or on private property, on a public street, road side or in a ditch, river, stream, lake, pond, canal, channel, park, gulch, ravine, excavation, or other place where it may be or become a public health nuisance,” the Act states.
Namugwanya called on the public to cooperate with the Ministry and desist from the aforementioned acts.
“The Ministry is aware that as we prepare for the forthcoming elections, participants need to use various tools mentioned above to popularize their candidature, but this has to been done in a regularized manner with authorization from KCCA in Kampala,” she said.
