Eight people were killed early Saturday in a crash along the Mbarara-Bushenyi-Ishaka road, sharpening calls from drivers and officials for the urgent return of automated traffic enforcement as Uganda’s road death toll rises.
The accident occurred about one kilometer from Kabwohe on a stretch long described by residents as dangerous due to its narrow width, potholes and frequent speeding.
The crash adds to a growing pattern of fatal crashes on major corridors where high speeds and weak enforcement continue to collide.
“Mbarara-Bushenyi-Ishaka road is characterised by a narrow roadway interspersed with numerous potholes and overspeeding,” a local resident said, warning that repeated appeals for lasting fixes have gone largely unanswered.
“Measures have been limited to filling potholes with soil, which has not addressed the underlying issues.”
Uganda recorded 26,044 crashes in 2025, up from 25,107 in 2024, with 4,602 fatal crashes and more than 5,300 deaths, according to police data. More than 40% of crashes are linked to reckless driving, including speeding, dangerous overtaking and tailgating.
For drivers, the problem is not just infrastructure, but enforcement. The Uganda Professional Drivers Network, UPDN, says predictable policing has allowed dangerous behaviour to persist.
“If a driver knows there is a high chance of being caught, they will slow down,” said Richard Ogwal, a UPDN member. “But if enforcement is predictable or absent, risky behaviour returns immediately.”
Officials at the ministry of Works and Transport say the scale of violations has outgrown human enforcement.
“We don’t even have more than 2,000 traffic officers across the country,” said Robert Kisakye, Senior Licensing Officer. “They go for lunch, they take leave. They are human. There are limitations.”
That gap has renewed pressure to restore the Express Penalty System (EPS), a smart enforcement designed to monitor drivers continuously. Using cameras, EPS detects violations in real time and issues fees without direct human involvement.
“When you are shown a video of how you were driving, with the speed recorded, you just accept. The evidence is clear,” Kisakye said.
Drivers’ representatives say such systems are critical to eliminating long-standing weaknesses in enforcement. “As many road users know, ‘Gambanogu’ is itself part of the problem,” UPDN said, referring to roadside bribery that undermines compliance.
The government has since admitted the limit was misapplied and is expected to restrict it to high-risk zones such as schools, markets and residential areas in the revised rollout. For residents along the Mbarara-Bushenyi road, Saturday’s crash is another warning sign.
“The frequency of accidents on this road is concerning, yet there appears to be a lack of adequate response,” one resident, James Asinguza, said.
With thousands dying on Uganda’s roads each year, stakeholders say the choice is narrowing. Without consistent enforcement backed by technology, they warn, deadly crashes like the one near Kabwohe will remain a recurring tragedy rather than an exception.
