Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago has delivered a scathing critique of government ministries, agencies, and other key actors for their absence and lack of urgency in addressing the city’s road safety crisis.
His remarks came during the release of the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Annual Road Safety Report, produced in partnership with the Bloomberg Philanthropy Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS).
The report was presented at City Hall on Thursday, 14th August 2025, and revealed a 3% drop in road traffic fatalities, from 425 in 2022 to 411 in 2023.
Despite this slight decline, the report warns that Kampala’s most vulnerable road users remain overwhelmingly at risk.
Pedestrians, motorcyclists, and bicyclists accounted for 96% of all deaths, with motorcyclists alone representing nearly half.
While acknowledging KCCA’s partners, Lukwago sharply questioned why high-ranking decision-makers were not present.
“These are not KCCA’s problems alone. Road safety is a collective responsibility,” he said.
“Yet the people with the real power to effect change are absent. It speaks volumes about how seriously they take this.”
He went through the report’s stakeholder list, pointing out that the Ministry of Works and Transport, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Sports, and the Uganda Police Force either sent low-level representatives or none at all.
“I have been here for years and have never seen the chairperson of the National Road Safety Council, Gen. Katumba Wamala, attend this meeting, yet he is the head of the lead agency responsible for managing road safety in Kampala and in the villages.”
'We’ve gone from bad to worse'
The Lord Mayor linked the stagnation to the city’s failure to meet global commitments, including the pledge to allocate 10% of all road infrastructure budgets to road safety.
“For five years we have made no progress. In fact, we’ve gone from bad to worse,” he said.
He also criticized the rollout of the Electronic Payment System (EPS), questioning why those behind what he described as a “scam” were not held accountable, citing the ongoing prosecution of Prof. Juma Waswa Balunywa in the Anti-Corruption Court as a contrasting example.
Lukwago condemned delays in removing accident victims from crash sites, sometimes taking over an hour, and the indignity of transporting bodies on motorcycles.
“Imagine someone dies on a boda boda, and then they are removed from the accident scene on a boda boda. That is the level of negligence we are talking about,” he said.
Measures underway
With support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, KCCA has launched a dedicated Road Safety Unit under the Kampala City Roads Rehabilitation Project (May 2024 – Nov 2026). Planned interventions include:
- Upgrading eight high-risk intersections, including Wandegeya and Kira Road.
- Installing improved markings, kerbs, and drainage at critical spots.
- Rolling out a low-speed zone in the CBD through the “30 for a Reason” campaign.
- Expanding crash data systems across police stations with GPS accuracy.
Lukwago warned that without political will, adequate funding, and active participation from all stakeholders, Kampala’s road death numbers will not improve.
“Bloomberg lives thousands of miles away. He has no brothers or sisters here. Yet he cares enough to fund this plan. What about us, whose brothers and sisters are dying on our roads every day?” next?