What would the roads say about all this digital number plates and vehicle inspection stuff?

What is curious about the police’s revelation is that they don’t cite cars in dangerous mechanical conditions as a leading cause. Human error, they say, is the major cause – citing overspeeding, overtaking in blind spots, and drunk driving. They are not wrong. Anybody who has seen Ugandans drive can tell you for free that it’s true we serve a living God, because how else do we make it back home from the bedlam that is our roads?! Seeing as the hubbub around the doomed digital numberplates project hasn’t settled, it is going to be interesting to see how the public and investors in the transport sector will receive news of the restart of this inspection of vehicles. There are several options available to the Police that don’t require money – and could make the government even more.

To start with, deal, firmly, with trucks, buses, and mass/public transport vehicles. They are key offenders and have the highest (potential for) casualty rates. It is those that must be tested for roadworthiness. Next, operationalize the Demerit Point System in the Traffic and Road Safety Act so that culprits are taken off the road until they are reformed or at least learn whatever lesson they might.

Our friends down south send drunk drivers to the coolers for a week to reflect and sober up but that’s not something we are going to do here. However, they also used to do something that could have such a devastating impact. Confiscation of vehicles. Few things will be as inconveniencing for drivers as not having their primary means of transport.

It will make them think twice if they know that even minor infractions such as driving on the wrong side, illegal U-turns, and talking on the phone can get their car held at the police station for a week. Even if they don’t have to pay anything to retrieve the car, the punishment will have served its purpose. The same goes for Bodas. The question then becomes whether we can judiciously apply the law fairly. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that we are very interested. So, for now, the fight is left to whoever it may concern, and the hope that the mercy of God is on us all.

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I would be remiss if I ended this without paying my respects to Aunt Rosemary Nyarubona, who succumbed to cancer this week. What a woman! A titan of life whose presence wouldn’t go without notice. I first saw her in high school, when she came to pick up her daughter and my friend, Choco, who was sick. Even in that desolate dispensary, she told stories and laughed loudly like she was one of us.

A mother of many and friend to them all. At her home in Jinja, we played cards, danced, and made merry because nobody was a guest. She brought the vibe. Everybody was her child. At the lowest of moments, that evening of March 2011, when my friend, Donvan, drowned in Bujagali, she was the adult, the mother, and the comforter of this bunch of shell-shocked and dazed kids who didn’t know what to do or how to comfort each other.

She hosted all of us for the entire time. Cooked for us. Gave us beddings. Prayed over us. And told us it would be okay. Even with her bad back supported by one of those medical braces, she traveled with us to Rukungiri for the burial, to hold us together and make sure we would be okay. She was the anchor. There will be many others with stories like mine, feeling broken, empty, and lost from losing her; yet drawing from who she was to survive through the tunnel and live on. Rest well, Abwooli. What a race you ran!

Mr Rukwengye is the founder, Boundless Minds.

@Rukwengye