Registration of boats, vessels on L. Victoria starts

ENTEBBE- The registration of water vessels and boats on Lake Victoria started Wednesday.

The exercise is being carried by officials from the Ministry of Works and Transport.

It began at Nakiwogo Landing site in Entebbe Municipality.

 “Our intention is get an updated data base of all boats. The government doesn’t know how many boats are operating on Lake Victoria. We want to know the total number of boats and then register them, ’’ Mr Barnabus Twinomujuni, the supervisor of the exercise said.

He said once they get the number of boats that operate at particular landing sites, they will be able to know how to develop the sites in terms of safety and environmental aspects.

He, however, said they faced resistance from some boat owners who didn’t want their boats to be registered.

“Some people were not aware about this process and thought that after registration, we were going to evict them from the landing sites which isn’t true,” Mr Twinomujuni said.

‘’ It’s not bad for the government to count and register all the boats but were not aware of the exercise,” Mr Dan Ngeye, a boat operator at Nakiwogo Landing site, said.

In Entebbe, the exercise will take place at Nakiwogo, Kigungu, Waterfront, Sailors Club and Kasenyi landing sites.

Mr Twinomujuni said they will move to more landing sites when they secure the necessary resources.

In the 2017-2018 financial year, 175 boats were registered and licensed. Between July 2018 and December 2019, 135 boats were registered and licenced, according to Mr Twinomujuni.