By Mulengera Reporters
Works & Transport Minister Gen Katumba Wamala was one of the big-name speakers at the Road Safety Conference 2025, which Uganda organized to coincide with the UN Global Road Safety Week, and was held at Speke Resort Munyonyo.
Themed “Road Safety for Socio-Economic Transformation,” the two-day conference had other eminent speakers including Vice President Jessica Alupo who represented the President, MPs Dan Kimosho and Robert Kasolo who respectively chair the Physical Infrastructure Committee of Parliament and the Parliamentary Forum on Road Safety.
The Intelligent Transport Monitoring System (ITMS) Project, through which the GoU intends to automate the detection, catching and sanctioning of motorists who violate traffic rules through reckless driving and over speeding, was also represented by their Training Manager Owen Muhumuza who spoke during the same panel discussion with Workers MP Abdul Byakatonda and AIGP Lawrence Nuwabine who heads traffic in Uganda Police Force.
In his speech, Gen Katumba implored Ugandans to contribute to the cause of road safety in their country by quickly embracing the automation and traffic management reforms that are soon going to be rolled out under the Express Penalty System Auto (EPSauto), which the ITMS Project staff will soon be implementing working closely with the Uganda Police Force.
The ITMS Project is under Gen Katumba’s Ministry of Works though even Gen Jim Muhwezi’s Ministry of Security has keen interest too in the same because of their desire to secure motorists and other travelers on the Ugandan roads.
This collaboration between Uganda Police Force and the ITMS Project will leverage technology whereby AI-enabled cameras, installed across the country, will be used to promptly detect traffic offences and electronically identify the offending motorists while making available their personal details such as phone numbers.
The system will totally eliminate room for bribery which has all along been used to compromise traffic Policemen to look the other side while letting traffic offenders be.
Katumba explained that the new automated system will have GPS trafficking capabilities to be able to track any offending motorists who might try to run away and hide after committing prohibited acts such as over speeding, reckless driving and disregarding traffic lights among others.
The Minister added that it will be possible for the Police to use EPSauto system to work out the traffic fines that are due and payable and even electronically deducting money from the offender’s mobile money registered line, who refuses to pay the penalty fees.
If there is money on the offending motorist’s mobile money registered sim card, the system, integrating personal details such as phone numbers, will automatically just deduct the money immediately after the offence has been committed.
Gen Katumba explained that through this EPSauto system, those offending the newly-proclaimed traffic regulations setting the maximum vehicle speed at 40kms per hour, will easily be caught and made to pay penalty fees instantly.
Katumba Wamala said he was aware of public anger and resentment, protesting this on social media, but his Ministry won’t be backing off because this is the only way to increase road safety for Ugandan travelers-and it’s what the WHO recommends.
The Works & Transport Minister also implored Traffic Police Officers not to be cowed or intimidated by anger and attacks directed at them by the public on social media because this is now part of the new law which they are mandated to enforce and implement without fear or favor.
Speaking in the presence of Vice President Jessica Alupo, who represented the President and spoke immediately after him, Gen Katumba added that the same intervention will leverage GPS tracking and AI-enabled cameras to increase safety for pedestrian travelers who he said are always the most vulnerable and most victimized on the Ugandan roads.
Katumba also talked about the need to leverage technology to make Uganda’s school-going little children and other students even safer because they too are part of the pedestrian traffic.
He made it clear all traffic offences, going forward, are going to be severely penalized and that, with technology and automation getting integrated, no offender will be able to injure or even cause the death of other motorists, pedestrians and get away with it. He said with digital registration number plates for all the vehicles, offenders won’t have where to hide anymore.
“This new system is going to make us all safer while traveling on the roads and it will at the same time minimize vehicle-related crimes on our roads,” said Gen Katumba who, at some point, also sarcastically congratulated VP Alupo for recently winning NRM elections in her native village in Katakwi.
Saying the intervention is going to be comprehensive because this country can’t afford to continue losing more than 5,000 people annually to road crashes, Gen Katumba also said routine vehicle inspections would soon be starting to weed out DMCs which are significantly contributing to the road carnage too.
Saying the government won’t succeed alone, inspite of the digital number plates and the EPSauto innovation, Gen Katumba Wamala called on non-state actors and the larger private sector to get more involved in boosting, participating in and supporting road safety interventions.
He thanked NBS, NTV, UBC, City Tyres, Vivo Energy, Uganda Red Cross and Uganda Insurers Association for leading the way by using their CSR budgets to prioritize road safety-promoting causes. He called out giants like MTN Uganda, UTCL and Airtel to leverage their large CSR budgets to get involved too.
He also made it clear that, much as the EPSauto intervention is here and starting soon, his Ministry won’t stop giving priority to awareness creation and sensitization programmes so that every citizen of Uganda gets to understand what is at stake.
Besides thanking Commissioner Winstone Katushabe, who is charged with Transport, Road Regulations & Safety for his relentless efforts geared towards making Ugandan roads safer, Gen Katumba Wamala made it clear that the government can’t afford compromising on the enforcement of the traffic rules anymore because the rampant pictures depicting road carnage and fatalities are giving Uganda, as a country, bad image abroad and thereby making tourists to shun the country construing it to be a high risk destination.
“There is more at stake than can promptly be appreciated by a lot of our people,” Gen Katumba asserted making it clear that besides costing life and money as time also gets wasted and lost in hospitals, lack of adequate levels of road safety also hurts Uganda’s ability to attract the badly-needed foreign exchange through tourism visits.
The Minister also referred to the billions the GoU annually invests to keep the relevant wards at Mulago hospital, where road accidents victims are hospitalized and managed from. He also had no kind words for Boda riders who refused to take advantage of the President’s directive requiring the Works & Transport Ministry to issue a rider’s permit to each of them at just Shs100,000.
Gen Katumba said that such riders would soon regret the consequences of their indifference though before enforcement operations begin, priority will first be given to mass sensitization and awareness creation among the same group. Katumba also called on Ugandans to prepare for the time when having digital number plates will be compulsory for every motor vehicle on the Ugandan roads. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
