Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) official says unregulated ‘boda boda’ imports are ‘choking’ the capital

The Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has urged Uganda’s Ministry of Works and Transport to stop the import of motorcycles, citing that such vehicles are already 'choking' the city's roads, according to local media reports.

The importation, which remains unregulated, is a disaster waiting to happen, as it has caused motorcycles to populate the roads, KCCA Roads Supervisor Andrew Serunjogi said at the National Road Safety and Mobility Symposium.

More than 500 commercial motorcycles, popularly known as “boda boda”, are allowed to operate daily on the roads, and the numbers are likely to swell without regulations, Serunjogi was quoted by The Independent news magazine as saying.

Serunjogi suggested that halting imports might restore order until a sustainable solution for the traffic is found.

An estimated one million motorcycles are on the roads in Uganda, with about 750,000 operating in the districts of Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso.

The 2021 traffic police report showed that boda-boda crashes contributed to nearly 50 percent of accident-related deaths, according to Uganda’s Dispatch news magazine.

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