Uganda's traffic woes

By Frederick Womakuyu

When you want to know that Uganda’s traffic system is dead, try walking through the ZEBRA Crossing.

Recently, when I come out of down town with my groceries in either arm, I knew that the safest place to cross the road near Shoprite, along Entebbe Highway, was the Zebra Crossing.

However, I was almost run over by a taxi, and then almost swept away by speeding motorcycles. I was only saved by reflex action when I jumped out of the road onto the pavement I was earlier standing.

I was terrified by the incident and got shocked down my spines.

After haphazard decades of planning, Uganda’s Traffic system and the Police Traffic department is all but dead. The system is broken down, runs on poor planning and we have no traffic system to speak of.

While Traffic boss Dr. Steven Kasima pretends that, actually the system is after all running smoothly, the planners of the traffic department have been the biggest causers of traffic jams, congestion, bribes to beat the system and the actual causers of almost all the accidents.

While you cannot move one kilometer without seeing an ‘advert’ of a policeman dressed in a white uniform, it is also ironically clear that you cannot move one centimeter without seeing a motorist breaking traffic rules. While a taxi on one end is driving over the pavements to beat the numerous traffic jams, a motorcycle on another end, loaded with over five passengers is crossing through the market in a tight deadline to beat traffic jam. In all, the pedestrians are inconvenienced by their maneuvers– but they have accepted the system because Kasima’s traffic department doesn’t cater for the poor motorists. Yet the parrot speaking cops continue to pretend that they are running the system well.

I had to wait for almost 30 minutes at the Zebra Crossing for my turn to cross. The traffic was extremely busy and yet there was no cop to help us the pedestrians to safely cross the road.

In fact the traffic cops didn’t care about us, their main concern were the unruly taxis, saloon vehicles and the motorcycle riders. It was impossible for me and other pedestrians to beat the busy traffic.

One woman who tried was knocked down by a speeding motorcycle and another gentleman who got impatient had to literary place his hands before a speeding taxi braked almost on his feet. I could see the terror, shock and pain deep down his eyes, he almost collapsed.

Then I started thinking of how great the traffic lights were in controlling traffic. In fact the traffic lights allowed motorists and pedestrians to cross the road safely in turns without much trouble.

On this occasion, I managed to pass because I carefully timed the motorists and when it seemed a bit clear, I run extremely fast across the road. If I was a vulnerable motorist such as the blind, the lame, the elderly or the children, I would have been run over by the fast speeding Fuso that swung past me. But armed with good lungs and excellent athletic feet, I found my way on the other side of the road.

As a human rights activist, I got thinking. How many Ugandans get knocked down at the Zebra Crossings every day? I didn’t have the answers but the one or two cases that I had seen within the 30 minutes I spent there painted a grim picture. And the traffic boss Kasima continues ‘gluing’ on the seat of the traffic boss, pretending that he is our saviour on the roads – yet if he was in a civilised nation -  he would have thrown in the towel by resigning or dismissed disgracefully from the Uganda Traffic Department.

But I still recalled that I was in Uganda, where nobody, even a thief can take responsibility for his actions
I entered my old car parked at the shell gas station only to encounter another obstacle. Kasima’s traffic cops stopped us for two hours along Entebbe road as we waited for other motorists to cross. It is as if they had forgotten us. I recalled the times of the traffic lights when traffic was controlled excellently.

By then, motorists on either road were given at least ample time to cross and stop in equal measure.

I asked myself yet another question. Did Kasima and his colleagues get rid of the traffic lights in order to deploy redundant traffic police officers? The answer lay in deploying three to four traffic cops every five meters on all the roads surrounding Kampala.

Yet with all these deployments, the cops remained incompetent, corrupt and all too unaware of the rules in the traffic department they were serving.

On a recent trip to my village, I was stopped by a policewoman at Namboole stadium. She asked for my driving permit but I confessed I had driven for so many years without one. Instead of throwing me into the ‘coolers’ – I mean prison, the lady asked for only sh5, 000 and left me to continue with my journey.

Then when I was coming back, another cop, this time a man stopped me, asking for sh10, 000 to let me go. I gave him and he waved me off to continue with the rest of my journey. I was not surprised.

A 2014 Governance report by the Inspectorate of Government indicates that traffic police department is the most corrupt in the Uganda police force. In fact, it is almost impossible to find an honest cop there.

As I waited for Kasima’s cops to let us go, I suggested to my fellow motorist next to me that the traffic woes could partially be solved by fixing the broken traffic lights and cracking down on the corrupt cops.

This could work because it is working in Kenya, as we wait for the government to develop more roads.

The writer is a Journalist