Lawlessness on Kampala roads should be a cause for public outcry

I have for long been concerned about the aberrant culture of road-use in Kampala City. Are the rules governing road use too foreign to enforce by our local authorities or are they rather too intricate for our local population to comprehend? 

A presence of road-law deviants has ironically not spared the recently constructed modern roads which have been designed with dual carriage such as the Acacia Avenue, the Nakawa Stretcher road, Kira – Bukoto stretch, the Northern Bypass, which our city has for long needed to address the awful traffic jam that has for decades undermined mobility in Kampala city.

Puzzled with the constant lawlessness on Kampala streets, moreover in the presence of law enforcement officers that are placed at numerous road junctions, I recently pulled over at Jinja – Mukwana junction and requested to speak to a by-standing traffic police officer.

At this junction, bodabodas were scuffling through a chaotic swam of hundreds of fellow bodaboboda riders, motorists and pedestrians as though there was an ongoing SpaceChem puzzle contest. Kampalanians are truly geniuses.

I inquired with a law enforcement officer why their presence on the road is evident everywhere yet road users drive in absolute disregard to road traffic rules all over Kampala. I inquired why road users did not follow the right road lanes. I inquired with the officer why law enforcement did not apprehend offenders of traffic rules. I inquired where as a city we thought we were heading with the current level of lawlessness on the roads.

The officer expressed gratitude towards my concerns. He told me and I quote, “We could have managed the road indiscipline stemming particularly from bodaboda but these motorcycles do not belong to the riders you see on these roads”, “they belong to lobbyist such as Resident District Commissioners, Members of Parliament and others wealthy members of society whom on the onset of learning about punitive measures we have taken against their indiscipline riders, call and report us to our superiors”, … “in turn, some of our colleagues have received punishments ranging from demotion, redeployment to difficult locations and some have been placed on katebe (recall from duty without an explanation).”

Some section of the elites violates road traffic lanes to exude their “Very Important Persons” status by deploying their lead-cars decorated with emergency lights and ear-stiffening sirens. 

Interestingly, populations residing in up-country townships tend to better adhere to road traffic rules than the Kampala folk. I have recently been on nationwide work-travels in townships of Gulu, Soroti, Moroto, Arua, Mbale, Jinja, Mbarara, and Fortportal and I was impressed to observe that we still have road-traffic law abiding citizens in this country.

The chaos on our Kampala roads translates some self-inflicting statistics continentally and globally. Uganda is ranked number one in Africa with the highest number people dying on the roads (29 mortalities per 100,000 population) as compared to the continent’s average 20.7 deaths per 100,000 population according to a 2021 World Bank’s Road Safety Country Profile report.

Our country is reported to lose a staggering 10.1 percent of its annual Growth Domestic Product (GDP) as a direct result of road traffic injuries alone.

As a direct result of the continued motorization of road transportation, Uganda is projected to see her fatality rate from road crashes rise and even double within the next decade unless the country realizes a need to enforce road safety measures.

Enforcement of public order on Kampala roads should not be left to the goodwill of road users. Kampala Capital City Authority and the Uganda Police Force’s Directorate for Traffic and Road Safety should, or at least be compelled to restore order on our streets.

Often, people frustrated by the mess on Kampala roads tend to put the blame on the government, in particular our head of stake which seems somewhat ironical. But let us face it. A presidential stance on a matter of public concern carries with it significant weight. Look at how adaptable people have become to the Covid-19 curfew hours since the Presidential pronouncement in 20219.

Let our Mzee - President Museveni pronounce himself on the “to whom it may concern” conduct of our law enforcement institutions as well as condemn lawlessness conduct of our road users so that order can be salvaged in our capital city.

Prof Denis Akankunda Bwesigye Associate Professor of Public Health Policy at EUCLID University under United Nations.