KAMPALA – President Museveni has asked landlords to reschedule rent payment instead of kicking tenants out of premises for nonpayment during the current lockdown over coronavirus.
While extending the lockdown over coronavirus by another 14 days on Monday, May 4, the President insisted that it is meaningless to pressure tenants when they have not been working.
He instead suggested that the rent can be rescheduled and paid when business resumes.
The President had in his earlier address warned that landlords evicting tenants over rent faced arrest.
“Landlords trying to evict people for not paying rent, this should not be allowed. They should contribute. The world is not ending, the shutdown is for a limited period, and it will end. The debt can be cleared after we are through with this,” Mr Museveni said.
Most businesses in various towns remain closed despite the President easing lockdown restrictions.
Following the suspension of public and private transport (except vehicles for cargo and essential services), majority of people do not have means to go to the city or other distant destinations.
Ms Ruth Namiru, a fruit vendor, says she has to sleep at the home of a friend who stays nearby to be able to access town and make a living for her children.
“My home is in Gayaza and it’s very hard for me to come to town early. There is a friend of mine, who travelled to Kenya; that’s where she stays, she left her house in Kololo for me. For the meantime that’s where I stay,” Ms Namiru said.
Closed shops, empty boda bodas stages, deserted shopping malls, arcades and streets, closed restaurants with a handful of people roaming the empty streets describe what the city looks like nowadays.
