SAMSON TINKA: 8,781 boda boda reported accidents for Jan-Oct 2022. This is a bad sign on Uganda’s safety standards

Some time ago, ASP Faridah Nampiima PRO traffic police shared Boda Boda accident figures that froze my mind. The same figures drew me to a closer interrogation of Uganda’s safety standards, culture, legislation, enforcement and resources committed to have a road transport safe environment. A total of 8,781 boda boda accidents were reported, of these, 1,146 riders , 448 passengers died, 3,738 riders and 2,135 passengers got severe injuries that their lives will never be the same again. Yes, they are alive but demobilized, deformed, disabled and can longer do much for their own living and their families. 1,594 people died, and 5,873 are alive but incapacitated.

These are the known reported and recorded accidents. It is common, that many accidents go un-reported at police especially when the parties agree on the scene of accident to compensate the offended, or one party will hit and run. These cases form a bigger percentage as well. Also upcountry accidents, night accidents are rarely reported. Even when reported, synchronizing of data is still challenge within police.

Is government through ministry of works not doing much on this?

With these deaths on record, one would expect government to deal with boda bodas in three areas, legislation, enforcement and training and awareness. There should be a law by now on how to acquire a boda boda, operate it in a safe mode. Its estimated that there are more than one million bodas in Uganda and almost 60% of these cycles are domiciled in greater kampala-Kampala, mukono, mpigi, wakiso and Entebbe. The five districts are the most economically productive districts in terms of business and this means that these death and injuries are concentrated in these 5 districts.

Personally, I believe government is not doing much in this area and in all angles. Be it legislation, enforcement, training, and awareness. The way cyclists dress, ride on public roads, treat their passengers, respond to enforcement orders all point to the fact that this sub-sector in transport section is not only disorganized but a distress to society.
Commissioner Road Safety Min Of works, this is your KPI.

These are remarks made by Winstone Katushabe*, Commissioner of Transport Regulation and Safety, Ministry of Works and Transport at a press conference marking one year of UDLS operations, held at the UDLS Main Branch, 1 April, 2022

Ladies and gentlemen, the National Road Safety Policy and the Third National Development Plan mandate us to strengthen, and harmonize policy, legal, regulatory, and institutional frameworks.

The delivery of this new driving license is one step in the right direction. The government also plans to, among others, streamline the administration of motor vehicle registration, improve the driver training and testing regime, improve road safety management and coordination, as well as enhance road safety education by 2025.

Visually and as per the above-mentioned figures, there is no improvement in road safety management. Therefore, whoever is appraising Commissioner of transport regulation and safety, your employee is a potential PIP-Member (performance improvement plan). You score card has to reflect a downward trend in boda boda accidents, discipline, improved regulations, policy formulations, training and awareness. Whereas there has been some few trainings in Kampala, they are a drop in an ocean.

Boda boda facilitating crime
On record, boda boda has facilitated crime in Uganda more than any other means of transport. From the group that killed Kawesi, the Sheikhs, Kirumiira and many others, their movements were facilitated by bodas. The bags snatching goons, Mombile money thefts, etc are all linked to bodas. Cross boarder smuggling and other crimes are aided by bodas. Riots in Kampala are facilitated by bodas.

Economy hurt by bodas.

It is estimated that over 24,000 man-hours are lost in traffic jams each year. The vehicle/Boda boda hours each year are estimated at 26,000 hours. The lost time and time vehicles/bodas spend on the road give an indication of the monetary loss and pollution attributed to the congestion. Following the National Road Safety Report 2010, during “peak hours – given that half of the 375,324 vehicles & 400,000 boda bodas registered in 2008 are in Kampala, and each uses a minimum of one litre of petrol in traffic jam every day, at UGX 5100 (1.7 Euro) per litre, this translates into losses of more than UGX 800 million (210,000 euros) per day”. It should be noted that the number of cars & Boda Bodas and the price of the litre have since increased implying an even higher loss in terms of revenue. Loss in revenue to the government is not the only side effect of traffic congestion. Our citizens are victims of financial confinement in this regard. Trips to and from Kampala take between 1 to 5 hours especially during peak or rush hours (in the morning, 5:30AM – 9:00AM and in the evening 4:00PM – 9:00 PM). The delayed travel times impact on the cost of the trip to the citizens and hence the quality of life lived. The high travel costs also affect the prices of several products and services the citizens need. There has been a massive uproar from the road travelers and haulers inclined to the congestion on the roads around Kampala.

Again, the 8,000 boda boda accidents and the over 2000 deaths have a direct impact on the economy. Most of these accident victims are adults who in most cases are bread winners of their families. A ugandan average family has 6 members. Meaning that the death of 2000 ugandans through boda boda accidents makes 12000 ugandans dependents.

The boda boda accidents survivors cost government a lot of money through medication and hospitalization. There is a ward in Arua referral hospital called senke ward. Senke is atype of motorcycle. That ward was named senke because, it houses 90% patients whose cause of admission is motor cycle accident. This cost if quantified is huge. Around 2016, I went to visit my uncle in old mulago hospital who was a boda boda accident victim, in that ward, there were 29 accident patients, 27 were boda boda victims, one child bicycle, the 29th a kid also fell from guava tree. These stats are hard to comprehend.

Could boda boda industry chaos be ignored by government due to commercial or tax reasons?

There is advanced argument that boda boda industry with its mentioned troubles above is spared because of commercial reasons.The tax government gets from bodas is in billions daily. This is through fuel consumption. As per 2022 approved budget, each litre of petrol comes with a tax of 1,450 ugx. On assumption that each boda in Uganda consumes 3 litres of fuel everyday, this alone generates 4.3b ugx per day on assuming that 1m bodas consumes 3litres of fuel per day-( Im bodas*4350 being taxes on 3 litres of fuel per day. The total taxes annually realized from bodas in Uganda would be close 1.58trillion Ugx. Not even Mtn pays that tax. As per available figures, MTN paid UGX 839 billion in 2021.

Well, this boda tax can be paid with safety regulation and practices implemented. I believe boda boda contribute a lot to MOH expenditure if the medicines and costs incurred on boda boda related accidents were quantified.
Ofcourse the other advanced reasoning which seem political not economical is that boda boda sector employs many youth and other ugandans. The question is at what cost?

Low or no budget?

There seem to be fewer resources committed in this important sector commercially. The revenues government gets from this sectors places it among the biggest tax paying sectors. This should trigger government to commit a lot of funding in streamlining it so that government earns more and losses less through these thousands of deaths and the related costs. As it is government thinks, they earn a lot from boda fuel taxes but if the P& L account is well constituted, government loses a lot through mitigating boda boda related accidents and crimes.

Safety and security are twin brothers.
Whereas government commits huge budgets to facilitate security and related operations, less is done for safety. Where safety is compromised, security becomes an immediate victim. 8,000 families whose members have either died or injured through boda boda accidents can never forgive government.

Imagine 100.000 families each year hating government because of boda boda accidents. In the long run, these un safe boda boda operations will bread security related concerns that will ultimately be hard to contain or expensively contained.

Way forward.

MOWT pull every effort from every direction to deal with this trouble for the last time. We have many examples to look at in the region. Boda boda sector in Rwanda is well organised especially from safety perspective. They respect road signs, traffic lights, adhere to wearing of crush helmets, well registered etc. The sector is governed through more than 18 cooperatives, which work hand in hand with the traffic police to enforce discipline and law. The cooperatives ensure that riders religiously follow the traffic signs without the presence of a traffic officer.

All new boda bodas be fitted with GPS system for both monitoring in case of the boda committing a crime.

Each boda boda must belong to a certain sacco. No individual boda boda owners should be alloqewd to operate in Uganda.
Each boda should be given special identification number that will appear on the helmet, the reflector jacket and the boda itself. This ID can even be synchronized with the owners NIN
Bodas payment should go cashless like uber boda etc. This also helps in tracking a criminal involved in boda boda business.

Finally, as a country, we need these motorcycles but we can not compromise safety.

Famous Star Trek character Captain Jean-Luc Picard stated, “Things are only impossible until they’re not.”