UPC calls for stringent bodaboda regulations

The Uganda People's Congress (UPC) has noted with concern the high number of Ugandans who are injured and killed in bodaboda accidents and called for tough regulations to streamline the industry.

Addressing journalists during a weekly press conference at the party headquarters at Uganda House in Kampala on Wednesday, the party spokesperson, Michael Osinde, said the industry was operating in anarchy with no proper training standards for riders, regulations and licensing.

"Some just wakes up in the morning, sells off land and before the close of the day, buys a motorcycle and starts ridding straight away. They just know how to ride but they are not traffic literate. They do not know the meaning of road signs," Osinde remarked.

According to Police statistics, over 2000 people die, while over 24,000 are injured in road accidents, the greater percentage being linked to bodabodas.

Road accidents approximately cost Uganda sh.1.8 trillion, about 2-3% of the total GDP every year.

According to the ministry of works and transport report published in Sept 2017, at least 10 people die in road accidents every day with bodaboda riders classified as the leading cause and most of them being head-on collisions. 

According to statistics from the traffic and road safety department, more than half of the accidents in the country take place in the Kampala Metropolitan Area.

According to UPC, this is alarming. "As a party, we are concerned that with the upcoming elections, we are losing voters and productive citizens to road carnage as some victims who survive will be perpetually unproductive," Osinde said.

"Quite often, the Police respond in firefighting mode when accidents occur. They arrest the suspect, impound motorcycles and park them. Take a look at Police stations, they are like bodaboda workshops.

Much as we have the national transport policy as well as the Transport Licensing Board, it seems that they have been overtaken by events and the emergency of bodaboda industry," he added.

The Traffic and Road Safety Act 1998, the Transport and Logistics Policy, the Road Safety Policy 2014, Transport Licensing Board and National Road Safety Council among others form the legal framework that guides the transport sector however, they have no specific provisions to regulate bodabodas.