Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) has asked the public to volunteer more information in regard to allegations of staff at Entebbe Airport mistreating travellers and asking for bribes.
In a statement issued on Thursday, 19 January 2023, UCAA said while such acts are “highly regrettable and unacceptable,” the shared videos do not give clear hints that can help in the investigations.
“… none of the regurgitated trending videos specifically states a particular check point, time, day and flight details of when the alleged extortion may have taken place. This would help the investigations,” they said in a statement.
“We are contacting the parties in the Tik-tok videos to share with us information that can guide us to take quick action. In the past, we have investi-gated similar generalised claims made on Tik-tok, but unfortunately no specific information was established to corroborate the claims,” they added.
According to one of the videos seen by this website, Mawanda Henry says he was ordered to pay the airport officials 300,000 Uganda shillings or else miss his flight.
Artiste Don MC Kapata said the officers made him miss his flight after refusing to give them $1,000 (UGX 3.6m) to clear his documents.
But UCAA clarified that it works with many other independent service providers at the airport who may not necessarily be their staff.
“It is important for the public to know that while UCAA facilitates operations at Entebbe International Airport, this is done in liaison with several independent providers of key services, including, but not limited to 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,” they said in a statement.
Nevertheless, they explained that they have often investigated such allegations, not matter the staff involved.
“Nevertheless, we would like to assure the public that previously reported cases with specific details have been thoroughly investigated and where staff of various agencies operating at the airport were found culpable, serious disciplinary action was taken, including termination of contracts and withdrawal of airport access passes from them, among others,” they said.
“We would like to reiterate our commitment to continue engaging all the airport service providers to take tough action on anyone found culpable of this vice, and also ensure that complaints are duly addressed to the satisfaction of the airport users,” UCAA added.
