26 people are killed daily, crime report says

At least 26 people lose their lives every day to murders and accidents, the police crime report for 2024 states. More than half of the 9,749 deaths registered last year by the police were due to road accidents and the rest were contributed by murders, fires, and water accidents. Cases of murders and deaths due to road accidents have continued to rise despite several interventions that the government has spent trillions of shillings on.

Twenty-five people are killed in Uganda every day in 2023, according to the 2023 crime report. According to the police report, which was presented by the Inspector General of Police Abas Byakagaba at police headquarters, Naguru yesterday, 5,144 people were killed in road accidents last year compared to 4,806 people in 2023. Another 20,664 people sustained injuries in the road carnage.

The report shows that 4,411 people, including 320 children, were killed last year, which is an increase of 1.9 percent. Despite the increase in deaths last year, the general crime in the country dropped by four percent in 2024 compared to 2023. Mr Byakagaba said the number of crimes dropped from 228,074 cases in 2023 to 218,715 incidents. “We note that there was a 4.1 percent decrease in the number of crimes reported to police from 228,074 cases in 2023 to 218,715 cases in 2024.

I take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to our people who were able to lodge their complaints at various police stations in 2024,” Mr Byakagaba said at police headquarters yesterday. This means that the crime rate has dropped from 500 in 2023 to 476 in 2024. The crime rate is calculated by dividing the volume of crime by the total population of the area and then multiplying the results by 100,000. Therefore, for every 100,000 people in Uganda, 476 are victims of crime.

 Uganda’s crime rate is still unacceptably high compared to other countries in the region. IGP Byakagaba said his major strategic task to reduce crime is to implement the sub-county policing model aimed at transferring the presence of personnel from the urban centres to the rural areas. “We have started implementing the sub-county policing model where we shall have 18 police officers at each sub-county. This is aimed at decentralising the police services closer to our people, enhancing crime prevention in the communities and enabling quick response to crimes,” IGP Byakagaba said.

According to the police documents, in this policing model a motor vehicle, two motorcycles, a counter phone and radio communication equipment, an office and accommodation for at least 18 personnel are required per station. Police estimates show that it will require Shs3.256 trillion to implement it. However, in this financial year, 30 sub-county police stations were planned for at a cost of Shs36.946b but only Shs9.8b was available in the budget. Nevertheless, the police redeployed more than 5,000 officers to upcountrysub-county stations early this year.

Assistant Inspector General of Police Tom Magambo, the director of the Criminal Investigations Directorate, said of the 218,715 cases, 81,750 were taken to court, which is 37.7 percent. “In those, we had convictions. For us, as the CID, it is a very big achievement. We registered 26,328. We also have some cases ongoing in court arising from last year, which is 43,579 cases. Of interest, we also had 46,302 cases which we didn’t proceed with,” Mr Magambo said. Mr Magambo said some cases were not pursued because they involved civil matters reported to the police or were resolved by the complainants and victims before investigations began.

At least 90,000 criminal cases are still under inquiry. Offences of theft, common assault, domestic violence obtaining money by false pretence and threatening violence, in that order, were the highest contributors to criminal cases. The crime report shows that homicide cases continued to increase from 4,248 cases to 4,329 incidents. At least 4,411 people (3,703 males and 708 females) lost their lives in homicide cases countrywide.

Murder by assault and mob action were the highest contributors to deaths with 1,339 and 1016 cases, respectively in 2024. At least 491 cases of murder by strangulation were registered last year. Ankole and Bunyoro regions had the highest murder cases in the country followed by Lango and Rwenzori regions.

Ntungamo (91 cases), Luwero (86) and Mukono (80) districts led with the highest murder cases in the country. The report shows that more than a quarter of the total volume of cases were thefts (61,000 cases). However, there was a decline in theft cases last year compared to  2023 by 6.6 percent. Police said the key motive in theft cases was economic gains. Ankole and Kampala Metropolitan Police North regions had the highest theft cases in the country.

Traffic

The Director of Traffic and Road Safety, Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIGP) Lawrence Nuwabiine said 5,144 people died in road crashes in 2024. Of 5,144 deaths, 228 were drivers, 1,720 motorcyclists, 138 pedal cyclists, 676 were passengers on motorcycles, eight passengers on tricycles, 144 were passengers in light omnibuses, eight passengers on medium omnibuses, 33 were passengers in heavy omnibuses, 438 passengers in other vehicles, 1,666 were pedestrians and 85 others.

The report shows 25,808 casualties from road crashes in 2024 compared to 24,728 in 2023, giving a 4.4 percent increase. Motorcyclists topped the deaths on the road last year. In 2023, motorcyclists were in the second position after pedestrians as victims of fatal road accidents. At least 1,720 motorcyclists were killed in road accidents last year compared to 1,520 in 2023.

Pedestrians are the second high[1]est road users to die on the road with 1,666 deaths last year. More crashes were reported to have occurred during day time than the night time. A similar trend is also reflected in fatal crashes where more fatal crashes are reported to have occurred during day time. “There were more crashes (3,790) reported on Sundays than any other day of the week in 2024.

In addition, 3,765 and 3,686 crashes were reported on Saturdays and Mondays, respectively. Fewer crashes (3,330) were reported on Tuesdays compared to the other days of the week,” Mr Nuwabiine said.