The Vice President, Jessica Alupo has handed over 140 motorcycles to the sub county chairpersons in Teso sub-region.
The Yamahas XTZ 125E model motorcycles worth over Ug.Sh.2 bn were delivered by the Nile Fishing Company on behalf of Yamaha Motor Company. They were delivered on Tuesday to Soroti district headquarters following the presidential pledge of 2009.
President Yoweri Museveni in 2009 pledged 2,000 motorcycles for chairpersons of town councils, sub-counties and municipal divisions but the implementation was marred by the alleged irregularities in the procurement process in 2020. The procurement that was reported to have been discriminative against the local companies was halted by Parliament in May, 2020.
It was however resolved, leading to the procurement of more than 2,100 bikes at 17 billion shillings from Yamaha Motor Company. While other sub-regions like Acholi, Lango and West- Nile received theirs in April, the long wait from Teso ended on Wednesday.
Christopher Saazi, the Executive Director of Nile Fishing Company that partners with Yamaha Motor Company says that the new bikes are cost-effective to manage. He says that the bike uses one litre of fuel to run for 85 kilometers while a litre of engine oil covers 4,000 kilometers.
Saazi notes that they had to take special considerations while designing bikes for the local government leaders to ease their work.
The new bikes come as relief to the sub-county chairpersons who have been operating using public means like boda- boda. Charles Euchu, the LC3 chairperson of Kakure Sub County in Kalaki district says he was forced to get a loan from the bank to get a motorcycle after getting frustrated by boda- boda services in the sub county. Euchu’s excitement is not different from Abdul-Aziz Ongodia, the Kumi Sub County Chairperson.
While handing over the bikes, Alupo asked the beneficiaries to observe discipline to be able to serve the communities with the new motorcycles.