Residents of Njeru Municipality in Buikwe district have requested President Museveni to declare Njeru part of Jinja Metropolitan Area to allow free movement across the Nile as inter-district travel ban takes effect.
Following President Museveni address this week which placed a ban on all non-essential inter-district travel, starting June 10 which is today, security officers enforced the inter-district movement ban where Njeru residents who work in Jinja encountered difficulties crossing the Nile Bridge.
As early as 6am on Friday, police set up at the New and Old Nile Bridge blocking everyone who tried to cross through.
According to the DPC of Jinja City ASP Maurice Niyonzima, the two bridges are the borders of Buikwe and Jinja and police are implementing a presidential directive.
“These are borders that separate Jinja and Buikwe, we are here to implement the directive of the president and we shall continue for all the 42 days,” Niyonzima told reporters.
Residents now want President Museveni to intervene and join the two districts because some of them work and live on either side of the bridge.
Mubiru Moses, a businessman who spoke to NBS TV said that he lives in Buikwe but works in Jinja and therefore the ban affects his work.
The president in his address on Sunday said that only tourist vehicles, cargo trucks and essential workers will be exempted from this ban.
Several residents of Kasibodo village in Tororo district were also on Friday denied the chance to access their homes after crossing to Busia district for garden work.
There are also several businessmen and women who had earlier made it to Busia for business and denied re-entry to Tororo.
The situation was also not any different in Kabarole as Police deployed heavily at its boundaries with neighboring districts to implement the presidential directive banning inter-district crossings.
The ban on the crossing according to President Museveni is a measure of regulating the spread of the second wave of COVID19.