The Ugandan government says the new speeding fine would restore “sanity” on the roads.
By Atuhare Asha |Update : 02.07.2023
Speeding fine in Uganda has increased tenfold, from Ush200,000 ($54.9) to Ush2 million ($548.6) after President Yoweri Museveni signed into law the Traffic and Road Safety (Amendment) Bill 2023.
The new law took effect on Saturday, July 1.
In the country, the maximum highway speed is 100 kilometres per hour, while on paved or gravel roads it is 80 kilometres per hour.
In 2022, there were more than 6,120 speeding offences registered in Uganda.
Emmanuel Otaala, a member of parliament representing West Budama South Constituency, welcomed the move, saying it will force motorists to be more cautious on the road.
“This law should have come yesterday. You cannot replace human life once it is lost,” he told Uganda’s Monitor newspaper.
Corruption ‘enabler’
The new law has also attracted criticism from certain quarters that believe it could be used to enable corruption.
“If somebody is confronted with a penalty of Ush2 million, he or she would rather give a Ush200,000 bribe to the police officer [who has arrested him or her],” Jane Nalunga, a Ugandan policy analyst, said.
Nathan Itungo, a member of parliament representing Kashari South Constituency, said corruption will “most likely affect implementation of the law.”
Accident statistics
In 2022, Uganda recorded a 17% increase in the number of road accidents.
At the close of the year, the country had registered 20,394 road accidents, from 17,443 incidents the previous year, the annual police report indicated.
Most of the accidents involved motorbike operators, with more than a quarter of the deaths recorded among motorcyclists, according to the police report.
Uganda has more than one million motorbikes used as taxis, with the capital, Kampala, having more than 120,000 commercial motorcycles.
Mukono and Wakiso are the other districts with a high number of motorbikes.
