Minister of Works and Transport, Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala, has announced that, starting July 1, 2025, the ministry will reintroduce mandatory motor vehicle inspections in collaboration with the traffic police, beginning with passenger service vehicles. This initiative aims to curb the rising number of road accidents in Uganda.
“We are bringing back mandatory vehicle inspections to tackle the increasing road accidents in Uganda. Our inspection centers will be reactivated on July 1, 2025, and training for inspectors is already underway. This measure will help remove unsafe vehicles from the roads and ultimately reduce accidents,” Katumba said.
” The operations for riders without helmets will resume and in future they are going to charge both the motorcycle rider and the passenger for not wearing helmets,” Katumba added.
To curb accidents, Katumba added that a 30 km per hour speed limit will be introduced in urban centers, as well as in areas surrounding schools and hospitals, in an effort to reduce accidents in high-traffic zones.
According to SP Michael Kananura, the Traffic Police spokesperson, all road users must take responsibility, as the police will impose strict disciplinary actions on traffic law offenders.
“For certain cases, we will hold offenders for 48 hours and take them to court. Some have normalized paying fines of 200,000 Uganda shillings, only to repeat the same offense the following day,” Kananura said.
According to a police report released in 2025, road traffic crashes in Uganda increased from 23,608 in 2023 to 25,107 in 2024. Of the total reported cases, 4,434 were fatal, 1,314 were serious, and 7,539 were minor.
Uganda ranks 10th in Africa for the highest number of road fatalities, a position that is concerning and calls for collective efforts from all stakeholders to enhance road safety.
