Walking is the single most important mode of mobility in both rural and urban areas in Uganda – and the deadliest likely to send us to an early grave.
The seven-km stretch between Kampala Central Business District and Kawempe division is an important case to observe Ugandans’ modes of mobility. In the evening every working day, throngs of people pace intently from work, before disappearing, one after the other, into tiny paths to their rentals in Kavule, Bwaise, Kawempe ku Ttaano, among other places.
The same exercise is repeated in the morning to work. Walking is the single most vital form of transport in both rural and urban areas in Uganda. Millions of trips – to and from work, shop, school, clinic, and for leisure activities – are made by foot. In Kampala alone, a half of daily commutes are made on foot.
This has earned Uganda recognition in high places: the World Health Organization ranks the country among the most physically fit nations in the world. Fewer deaths in the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic were attributed to active lifestyles that involve walking, cycling and hand-hoe tilling of the land.
Elites have recognised the significance of walking – often now parking their cars to either walk or jog about in their neighbourhoods. Yet infrastructure planning and execution remains heavily tilted in favour of cars.
On the Kampala- Kawempe stretch, you will observe motorists honk irritably at pedestrians to get out of the way while boda boda cyclists will hurl insults at walkers delaying giving way.
It is not an option that the majority of us take willingly – it is an opportunity cost we take to save enough for lunch or pay school fees. Look around where you live, work or take your child to study. You will realise that your road either has no provision for or has very
little space for pedestrians. This has proved fatal.
Pedestrians make up nearly a half (40 per cent) of all road fatalities and 20 per cent of the injuries in Uganda annually. Uganda has spent trillions of shillings to build roads – averaging about Shs 4 trillion – annually. Much of this money goes to asphalt meant for cars and not a lot has been spent on making roads safe for all.
Why are our technocrats not interested in pedestrians’ safety? One quick explanation is “lack of money” to cater for pedestrian infrastructure. This makes no sense and should be rejected by all of us. There is simply no willingness to act. Many technocrats, just like many of us, think that the car symbolises progress (yes, peers and society are happy with us when we turn up driving rather than walking).
This thinking has eschewed planning to favour motorists, leaving the most used mode of transport – walking – unsafe. This must change. Any of us is a pedestrian at one time of the day because our last-mile journeys are made on foot, making pedestrian safety our collective concern.
What do we do? Most suggestions have been chanted repeatedly to no success. It does not hurt to try one more time to wake up our leaders from their slumber.
We must start with infrastructure planning. Any road project that goes through approval processes without adequate provision for pedestrian safety is as good as useless. Of what use is a piece of asphalt that will murder nearly a half of all its users?
Some donors have recognised this. The World Bank-funded Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development Program Project (USMID) made walkways, clear road markings, and crossing points a strong feature of roads they funded. Other donors should pick a leaf.
We should also make use of bollards and raised pavements in congested areas to protect walkers from fatal impact in instances where cars veer off the road. Open manholes and drains are an eyesore, and we should be ashamed that we lose lives to these.
Our behaviour on the road must change and enforcement must be stronger to rebuke drunk drivers, the unlicensed, and those driving around in condemned boxes. As a country, we must have a conversation on speed limits. It is not uncommon to see one racing at 60km/hr in congested areas only to park at a supermarket to buy yoghurt.
We cannot tire from sensitisation campaigns on road safety – government should fund these on mass media, churches, and community meetings. Everyone must know that they can be a victim any time. Walking is the most ancient mode of transport, the cheapest, and the healthiest. We must make it safer.
The author curates Beep Beep (@BeepBeepUG), a social media blog advocating children’s road safety