89% of boda bodas don’t have permits, says report
Boda bodas on Jinja Road in Kampala. A new report on improving road safety in Uganda has revealed that at least 89 percent of boda boda riders in Kampala City do not have driving permits. PHOTO / DAVID LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- The report, which was released yesterday, was put together by Makerere University, Uganda Police Force and Ministry of Works and Transport between February and June.
- The study was piloted in four Kampala divisions of Kawempe, Makindye, Rubaga, and Nakawa.
A new report on improving road safety in Uganda has revealed that at least 89 percent of boda boda riders in Kampala City do not have driving permits.
The report, which was released yesterday, was put together by Makerere University, Uganda Police Force and Ministry of Works and Transport between February and June.
The study was piloted in four Kampala divisions of Kawempe, Makindye, Rubaga, and Nakawa.
While central region was not included because of the pandemic, a dataset involving 785 boda boda riders was considered.
Improving road safety
“We wanted to improve road safety in Uganda starting with the factors behind the contribution to accidents because most of the accidents that we have in Kampala are caused by boda boda riders,” Ms Betty Kwagala, the principal investigator from Makerere University, said during the release of the report yesterday.
Ms Kwagala added that boda boda riders attribute the absence of driving permits to the prohibitively high fees. A three-year driving permit costs about Shs330,000.
The study also found that 10 percent of the boda boda riders work while under the influence of drugs.
Dr Patricia Ndugga from department of Population study, who doubled as the co-researcher, said this was discovered after 450 of the 785 research subjects “accepted to be tested.”
Dr Ndugga said the boda-boda riders used contrabands to work “for longer hours and enable them not to sleep or get tired so that they earn more.”
A correlation was, however, drawn between drug use and accidents.
Mr Richard Ssendi from the Ministry of Works and Transport, said: “Different government sectors [will] come up with policy actions so that boda-boda riders are trained before getting the driving permits.”
Background
Recently, government transferred the issuance and production process of permits from the South Africa-based- Face Technology to Uganda Security Printing Company that will be superintended over by government in conjunction with Veridos following the expiry of the former’s contract.
