REST IN HEAVENLY PEACE LITTLE ANGELS. SAY HI TO MY SON. As God is my witness, I do not go out of my way to look for weaknesses in government. But the story in today’s New Vision about the road crash that killed anywhere between 25 and 30 primary‑school children seemed to imply that the responsible MDAs mounted a coordinated, unified response. In reality, no such unified response occurred. What we saw instead were isolated, uncoordinated appearances by individual ministers: - Hon. Muyingo, the Acting Minister of Education and Sports, announced a ban on school trips while standing at King David School. - Hon. Kasule Lumumba, the Minister of ICT, issued a government statement at the Uganda Media Centre. - Hon. Maganda, the Minister of State for Transport, later read a very brief statement. - Hon. Engola, the Minister of Disaster Preparedness, did not address the disaster at all. These were parallel statements, not a coordinated national response. And they all shared one thing in common: they were budget‑neutral. Not a single MDA proposed immediate funding for emergency support, nor did any propose future investment in substantive road‑safety measures. Yet this was a tragedy that demanded the highest level of government coordination. A unified response should have included a single multi‑agency meeting starting by 8:00am and ending by 11:00am and then Hon. Minister of ICT would give a true unified response from government. The meeting should at the very least had representation from: - Ministry of Works and Transport - Uganda Police - Ministry of Health - Ministry of Education - Office of the Prime Minister This is standard practice in countries with mature road‑safety systems. It ensures verified casualty numbers, coordinated messaging, technical investigation, and immediate support to families. Instead, the nation was left with contradictory statements and symbolic measures. Painting school buses a single colour was proposed, a measure with zero impact on road‑safety outcomes. The Director of Traffic then contradicted this by noting that most school buses are hired PSV buses and cannot be painted as school buses. Hon. Muyingo’s ban on school trips was a temporary emotional measure, not a solution to the underlying causes of road crashes involving school children. Meanwhile, the country was in shock. The grief felt was equivalent to national mourning. Parents were in incomprehensible agony. A unified government response should have included: - Counselling services at the school - Free transport for parents who needed to travel to hospitals or mortuaries - A central information desk for verified updates - A technical investigation team deployed within hours - A joint press briefing with consistent information None of this happened. OVER Twenty‑five children died in a single crash. The nation deserved a coordinated, compassionate, technically competent response. What it received instead was fragmentation, contradiction, and cosmetic measures that require no investment and deliver no safety improvement.

Given the widespread circulation of this information today, I engaged in preliminary consultations with NTSA personnel. Their insights into the Instant Fines Management System (IFMS) highlight the key differences with Uganda EPS: ➡️Implementation of Driving Permits with a chip came first around 2019 which will now be used for implementing demerit point system along with the instant fines. ➡️They have had a PPP in place approved by Cabinet from the initial steps of introducing the smart driving permits (which are much cheaper than the Ugandan ones). KCB Bank is part of the PPP which may imply delays in payment will attract interest payments at commercial bank rates. The PPP covers many more functions including production of Driving Permits. ➡️Ministry of Transport procured and installed 1,000 smart cameras (fixed and mobile) monitoring major roads like Mombasa Road and Thika Superhighway. ➡️Fines covered • Speeding • Licence and inspection violations • Plate and identification issues • PSV compliance failures • Driver conduct and road‑use violations ➡️Fines range from KShs 500 (approx. 15,000 UGX) to KShs 10,000 (approx. 300,000 UGX). ➡️No surcharges. KCB interest rates may apply.

Around 2015, when the World Bank was encouraging the Ministry to establish a Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (MATA) as part of the broader BRT agenda, I attended a World Bank workshop in Addis Ababa with a colleague who has since left the Ministry. One statement from the facilitators has stayed with me ever since: “You cannot engineer yourself out of traffic congestion.” He explained that building more roads, widening highways, or constructing flyovers cannot, on their own, solve congestion. Congestion is not simply a road‑capacity problem. It is fundamentally a behavioural, economic, land‑use, and road‑management problem. Engineering interventions treat the symptoms, not the underlying causes. He highlighted several issues that illustrate this point: Induced or Latent Demand: Whenever road capacity is increased, more people choose to drive because the road initially feels faster. Over time, the new lanes fill up and congestion returns. This pattern is well‑documented globally. He gave the example of Seoul, South Korea — a city I had visited in 2007 and seen the phenomenon firsthand. Kampala’s Radial Network: Kampala’s road network funnels traffic from Entebbe, Masaka, Jinja, Hoima, and Gayaza into a very small CBD core. Even with flyovers, all these streams still converge at the same point. A flyover may remove conflict at one junction, but it does not reduce the volume entering the city. Land‑use Patterns: Most jobs, services, and government offices are concentrated in the CBD. This creates strong tidal flows: everyone enters the city in the morning and leaves in the evening. Flyovers cannot change the distribution of demand. Kampala continues to grow inward rather than outward, intensifying pressure on the same limited space. The Geometry Problem: In dense cities, the real bottleneck is rarely the roads themselves. It is the intersections, off‑ramps, and city streets. You can build a 12‑lane highway/road but if all those vehicles must eventually exit onto a 2‑lane urban road with traffic lights, you have simply created a faster way to reach a stationary queue. Weak Last‑mile Connectivity: Even when trunk roads are improved, the feeder roads in suburbs such as Ntinda, Najjera, Kisaasi, Makindye, Nansana, and Kireka remain narrow, unpaved, or poorly managed. Congestion simply shifts from the improved section to the next choke point. Other Systemic Factors: Land‑use planning, enforcement, public transport quality, roadside activity, and general road management all influence congestion. Without addressing these, engineering solutions alone cannot deliver lasting relief. Summary The lesson from that workshop from the Kampala’s live in or work in is clear: you cannot build your way out of congestion. Sustainable mobility requires a combination of engineering, planning, enforcement, behavioural change, and institutional reform. ADDING LANES TO FIX TRAFFIC CONGESTATION IS AKIN TO LOOSENING YOUR BELT TO CURE OBESITY. IT ADRESSES THE SYMPTOM (TIGHTNESS) WITHOUT FIXING THE CAUSE.

Another crash. Eight people dead. And once again the explanation is the same tired line: reckless driving, speeding, overtaking. At what point do we admit that these are human behaviours hard‑wired into every society? In every advanced country, they solved this problem not by preaching behaviour change but by engineering solutions. Reckless driving is no longer the real cause of road crashes. The real cause is negligence of duty by the Government MDA responsible for road safety. Why do we refuse to see this? Do we not travel? Do we not observe the systems in place elsewhere—barriers, rumble strips, signage, lane discipline, speed‑calming infrastructure, automated enforcement, black‑spot redesigns? Or are we still deceiving ourselves that we can “change human behaviour” through slogans and press conferences? Almost everyone in the responsible department has attended the two‑week course hosted by @TUDelftOnline. Yet the moment they land back at Entebbe, everything they learned is left on the plane. No implementation. No engineering. No systems thinking. Just recycled excuses. Until we stop blaming drivers and start fixing the system, the crashes will continue—and so will the funerals.

You are absolutely right. Syndicated and systemic corruption is the primary driver of road crashes. Globally, these incidents are no longer called “road accidents” but “road crashes,” precisely because they are preventable. This shift followed the 2004 World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention, which demonstrated that road deaths are not random events, they are the predictable outcome of policy choices. The most effective way to drastically reduce road crashes, and the immense loss of life and trauma they cause, is for governments to deliberately implement proven safety measures. Yet in Uganda, the default approach is to blame drivers, road users, and even pedestrians, instead of addressing the institutional failures that create the conditions for these crashes. The paradox is striking: even when drivers are blamed, they are almost never prosecuted. In my 26 years of service, not a single driver has been held accountable, despite thousands of deaths every year. Entrenched corruption ensures that accountability simply does not exist. Parliament’s accountability committees don’t their jobs when it comes to road crashes. Critical factors such as road condition and road geometry are rarely analysed for repair or corrective safety design. An estimated 99% of paved roads undergo no safety inspection and no maintenance assessment. Narrow, unsafe roads are constructed because corruption rewards cost-cutting and kickbacks. Driver and Road User education is compromised by corruption. Ambulance availability is undermined by corruption. Enforcement of regulations is weakened by corruption. Safer roads are not built because corruption diverts resources. Even road contractors go unpaid on time because corruption distorts the entire procurement chain. In short, corruption is not a side issue—it is the central mechanism through which road crashes are not reducing and instead they’re now normalised as part and partial of road usage.