The Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, has asked the Ministry of Works and Transport (MoWT) and Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) to explain why roadsides across the country are clogged with very many parked cars.
She said that prolonged idle parking of cars is dangerous and risks the lives of road users, including prominent Ugandans, a challenge that Government should address expeditiously.
The Speaker tasked the relevant authorities to enforce the legal regime that arms the Government with powers to confiscate cars recklessly parked by the roadsides and charge their owners to discourage the vice. The remarks were made while paying tribute to former Erute North MP Gutumoi Angiro, who died on 8th June 2023 in a car crash along Karuma-Pakwach Road, and businessman Apollo Nyegamehe, also known as Aponye, who passed on in Ntungamo after his car, collided with a trailer parked by the roadside.
According to Among, Nyegamehe’s death could have been avoided had the Government implemented provisions in the Road Act of 2019 that prohibits roadside parking save for the gazetted parking spots.
“If you talk about a person who could inspire, that was Aponye, you would put him in a desert and make rain. He inspired many of our children and many of us. We have kept talking about accidents…[that of] Aponye was avoidable if the car was not parked by the roadside,” She noted.
Among ordered UNRA and Police “to have all cars parked on roadsides taken to police stations at the owner’s cost. You can’t have those cars parking idle, causing accidents, and the owners aren’t bothered.” Section 58 of the Road Act 2019 stipulates, “A person whose vehicle breaks down or who is involved in a road accident on a public road shall remove the vehicle from the public road, and for the case in urban areas, the vehicle shall be removed from the public road within two hours from the time of the breakdown or accident, while in rural areas the vehicle shall be removed within 6hours.”
After the stipulated time has elapsed, the Act adds, “The vehicle shall be towed to a yard at the nearest police station, and the vehicle shall be removed by the owner or his or her representative after paying the cost of towing.”
Section 58(8) says, “Any person who repairs a vehicle along a road or leaves a vehicle unattended on a public road without authorization from a road authority or the police commits an offense and is liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding 96 currency points (UGX1.9 million) or imprisonment not exceeding four years, or both.”
The Road Act further gives the Government powers to sell abandoned vehicles if not claimed after 90 days of advertising the vehicle.
Jonathan Odur (Erute South) asked Government to show its commitment to improving road safety in Uganda by financing the sector and ensuring that legislation to curb road carnage is brought to Parliament for consideration.
Odur said that there is a budget set aside to implement the provisions passed by Parliament, instead of leaving laws to gather dust as people lose lives on roads. He said, “The certificate of financial implication that is mainly given for Bills isn’t just a formality; it is to show that Government is ready to invest money to implement a particular Bill. Now, the Ministry of Finance has made it kind of a ritual that once a Bill comes, you just write a certificate, and when it comes to proposing a budget for implementation, it isn’t done. In the 2022/2023 FY, MoWT required UGX30 billion to do road safety work. The Government said that it is software and has now moved the priority to tangible things like PDM, yet PDM has a component of roads. Once the Government decides that road safety is an important aspect, it must be matched with financing.”
Parliamentarians also raised concern over the reckless driving amongst motorists, poor road designs that leave the moving cars to compete for space with parked cars, as well as the poor emergency services in health facilities that fail to save lives in such cases.
Fred Byamukama (Minister of State for Transport) acknowledged concerns raised by the Speaker over the recklessness of motorists and noted that a new system is going to be established to eliminate human contact responsible for the manipulation of the system.
He said, “We have taken note of all the concerns, about people who have been learning to drive in compounds and pay UGX 200,000 to Police to get driving permits, that is our weakness with our colleagues in police. We are bringing an automation method where everything is done digitally, and you won’t see people’s faces.”
According to the annual Police report, there were 20,394 crashes reported, out of which 3,901 were fatal, 10,776 were serious, and 5,717 were minor. The report further highlighted that the number of fatal crashes increased by 16.9% from 3,757 in 2021 to 3,901 in 2022, while the same increment was recorded in the number of serious crashes, which increased from 9,070 in 2021 to 10,776 in 2022. The number of minor crashes increased from 4,616 in 2021 to 5,717 in 2022.
