Landlords Found Collecting Rent In Uganda To Be Jailed For 7 Years

As Covid-19 continues to sweep across the continent, many African governments have been trying to cushion their citizens against the economic effects of the pandemic.

In Rwanda, the government has been supplying food to every household, free water and electricity in the last three months. In Ghana, doctors and nurses were exempted from paying taxes and citizens given free electricity and water.

Closer home, in Uganda, strongman Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has been appealing to landlords to be kind on their tenants during the pandemic. He directed them not to ask for rent from their tenants for three months as the government weighs the impact of Covid-19 on the economy.

Since some landlords have been collecting rent, the government of Mr. Museveni has moved a step further to issue a directive that many Kenyans wish Uhuru Kenyatta would have replicated.

In the new directive, landlords in Uganda have been directed not to collect rent from the tenants for the next three months. Failure to adhere to the directive, the government might either take over the property or jail the landlord for at least 7 years.

According to Mr. Museveni, there shall be life after Covid-19 and that people should stop talking about normalcy during the time of abnormalcy.

In Kenya, things are different. Kenyans have been calling on President Uhuru Kenyatta to direct landlords to ease on rent but the Son of Jomo always avoided the subject choosing to call on landlords to be “human”.

A survey by Infotrak showed that 63 percent of Kenyans are now unable to pay their rent. 60 percent cannot pay their rent in full and on time. Most Kenyans are now calling on Uhuru Kenyatta to open up the economy and call off the cessation of movement so that majority of them can travel to the village.

Do you wish you were a Ugandan right now?

READ: President Kenyatta: Landlords Will Not Be Compelled to Waive Rents