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How should Uganda solve its Shs1.5b boda problem?
Boda bodas at the traffic lights on Jinja Road in Kampala on December 6, 2022. PHOTO/FRANK BAGUMA
What you need to know:
- At least 1,390 of the 4,159 fatalities recorded on Uganda’s roads in 2021 were attributed to boda bodas alone.
Boda bodas represent two opposite extremes of transportation on Ugandan roads. While they are renowned for being able to weave through gridlocks that paralyse roads during peak hours, the latest annual crime report captures the trail of destruction they tend to leave behind.
At least 1,390 of the 4,159 fatalities recorded on Uganda’s roads in 2021 were attributed to boda bodas alone as per the report. Of these, 528 were passengers who never made it to their destinations.
The casualty ward of Mulago Hospital is always jam-packed with either boda boda cyclists or their passengers. The 2021 police report indicated that as many as 6,770 of these two sets of persons were wheeled into medical facilities with serious injuries.
Statistics from the city mortuary in Kampala show that the pathologist carried out post-mortem examinations on a minimum of 40 boda boda crash victims each week. Yet such is the youth unemployment problem in the country that many young males see the two-wheeler as a route out of poverty.
At what cost?
On September 14, junior Health minister Hanifa Kawooya stunned lawmakers on the Physical Infrastructure Committee when she revealed that the government spends at least Shs1.5 billion on covering medical care of accident victims.
“The average cost of treating a critically ill patient is about Shs3.6 million per day. With surgical intervention the cost rises to Shs13.6 million, which translates to Shs648 million for the care of an average 180 critically injured patients at the A and E (Accident and Emergency) unit at Mulago National Referral Hospital,” Ms Kawooya revealed, adding, “Half of these patients require surgery increasing the total cost to Shs1.548 billion per month.”
Deaths attributed to road accidents, Ms Kawooya proceeded to note, are the seventh leading cause of death and 45.7 percent of half admissions at Mulago are patients battling trauma effects.
Boda bodas have also gained notoriety for fuelling crime in the city and its environs. On countless occasions, robbers and other criminals have used motorbikes to assail their unsuspecting targets. On March 29, 2015, assailants riding on motorbike gunned down Senior Principal State Attorney Joan Kagezi in Kiwatule, North of Kampala, after she stopped to buy groceries at the market place.
In March of 2017, the former Assistant Inspector General of Police Andrew Felix Kaweesi was— together with Godfrey Wambewo and Kenneth Erau—killed at Kulambiro by gunmen riding on boda bodas. The following year in June killers riding on boda bodas put out Arua Municipality MP Ibrahim Abiriga.
Who is to blame?
The minimum standards stipulated by the government indicate that every boda boda rider is expected to have a driving permit, possess a log book, third party insurance and PSV license. The rider should also have an operational license from Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and stage at which they are attached to.
A joint study by the KCCA and the Works and Transport ministry, however, discovered that these are barely adhered to.
As many as 94 percent of the 42,000 motorcyclists were sampled lacked permits and insurance cover. Other findings were that 98 percent of the motorcyclists had no PSV licenses, with a further 73 percent having no log books.
To compound matters, the boda boda riders go about their business with such reckless abandon. CCTV footage that the Uganda police released on multiple occasions this year captured the scale of the recklessness of the two-wheelers that ply the roads in the Kampala-Metropolitan area. Authorities blamed the vast bulk of the boda boda-related accidents registered this year on the gross indiscipline of the two-wheelers as seen through their failure to adhere to road signs.
What’s being done?
Persistent calls have been rallied by state authorities in a bid to tame the escalating situation that has persistently robbed souls and plunged families into irreparable agony. For instance, repetitive calls have been made by House Speaker Anita Among to concerned parties to remedy the situation.
“I want to request the government to have strict regulations on the registration and licensing of boda bodas, including the riding proficiency, the awareness of the traffic rules and regulations and the general safety consideration,” Ms Among said last month, adding, “Subjecting riders to regular riding proficiency test as a pre-condition for license renewal, you find someone picks a license from anywhere, you don’t know if they killed anyone.”
Prior to this, she had invited the Deputy Inspector General of Police Maj Gen Tumusiime Kasigazi to her office who was eventually asked to expedite efforts to whip reckless driving on Ugandan roads.
“We face a crisis, especially on Kampala roads, as a result of reckless boda boda riders. We must address henceforth with,” Ms Among told Gen Kasigazi, adding, “You need to take critical steps to reverse this devastating trend and save lives on our roads.”
In mid-November, KCCA together with Uganda Police mounted operations on Kampala streets to among other things ensure that boda boda cyclists adhere to laid out regulations. The must-haves included helmets and reflector-jackets for cyclists.
The government has also piloted training sessions for the two-wheelers. These have, however, been largely shunned by the targeted beneficiaries.
Heading into the business end of the festive period, it is feared that the two-wheelers will continue going about their business on Ugandan roads with reckless abandon.
What next?
Dr John Waniaye, the Commissioner Emergency Medical Services at the Ministry of Health, told Saturday Monitor that the government is scaling up emergency care, which is a critical ingredient in cushioning the blow that road crashes are known to inflict.
“Uganda has procured … 120 ambulances, including 14 boats ambulances,” he said, adding that the plan is to have between 20 to 30 ambulances in each region.
To improve on the efficacy of the emergency system, Dr Waniaye said the government is developing guidelines and standards for the different types of ambulance. These range from vehicles, motor tricycles and boat and helicopter ambulances.
“This will be responding according to the severity of the victim and location. There is type A for patient transport vehicles, type B for basic life support emergency ambulances, type C advanced life support and intensive care ambulance,” Dr Waniaye revealed, adding, “Government was adopting type B for universal coverage and type C for regional referral hospitals and super specialised medical centres like the Uganda Heart Institute.”
Critics, however, contend that the government’s approach to what is by all measures a colossal problem is reactive as opposed to being proactive. Others have suggested a rethink of Uganda’s public transportation infrastructure, with the end goal of eliminating boda bodas altogether.
