Enough is Enough! Ugandans have taken to social media to express anger and expose faces of officials at Entebbe Airport that have made lives of travelers difficult.
These officials working for several entities which include Immigration, handling agents (NAS and DAs), airlines, Ministry of Health through port health, Security agencies, URA customs, and Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (Labour externalization agents), among others demand bribes from passengers and failure may lead to missing flight.
Many times, cases of missing flights have been recorded at Entebbe but the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) comes up with ‘valid’ reasons to defend the decision taken by the officials.
Left with no option, bitter, affected passengers have taken their matter to the public court through social media.
Surprisingly, many citizens have since joined the crusade revealing sordid deals that happen at the airport before a passenger boards a plane.
In fact for any passenger to be assured of a flight is when she/he is in transit.
UCAA on Thursday said it had kicked off investigations into the allegations raised on social media.
The authority also warned its staff against practicing corruption.
“We have noted various trending social media videos highlighting cases of alleged extortion of money from passengers through Entebbe International Airport. Uganda Civil Aviation Authority does not in any way condone such acts and where such incidents have happened, it is highly regrettable and unacceptable,” a statement reads in parts.
But the authority indicated that although it oversees operations at the airport, there are other independent service providers it coordinates with.
This however, was seen as an excuse that by the UCAA to protect its staff who could be embroiled in the scandal.
Against that backdrop, social media enthusiasts have posted pictures of those officials involved in corruption.
In one of the videos trending, an identified official is filmed openly demanding shs 400,000 bribe from a passenger who instead suggested to leave his phone behind with password so that the unscrupulous official would access his mobile money and send money to himself when it is deposited but allow the passenger to board a plane. Shame!
Ugandans are eagerly waiting for UCAA to parade the faces of corrupt officials denting the image of the country
