Motorcycles providing employment and traffic chaos in Kampala

Motorcycles weave between traffic, jump red lights and carry precariously balanced loads they were never designed to haul.

About half of the estimated 700,000 boda-bodas operate in Kampala, mostly driven by men who say there are no other jobs for them.

Their bikes are a vital tool to earn their living, be it transporting goods or passengers.

“Some among us have their degrees, they have their masters, but they are just here they have nothing to do,” Zubairi said.

Uganda’s unemployment rate grew from nine per cent in 2019 to 12 per cent in 2021, according to the most recent survey by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics.

Road safety regulations for motorcycles, first approved in 2004, are difficult to enforce.

The boda-boda riders who operate mostly unregulated, have resisted recent attempts to dislodge them from Kampala’s central business district (CBD).

The Commissioner for Transport Safety at the Ministry of Transport says training is key.

“We need to help them train, understand how they are using the road, be patient with other road users, make sure they are safe because we still want them, I have told you most of these guys range between 19 and 45, this is the most productive age of any country,” Winstone Katushabe said.

Political calculations

Jobs are scarce and well-paying ones even harder to find in an economy where just one per cent of 22.8 million employees make $270 USD or more in monthly pay, according to central bank figures released earlier in 2024.

In what has been seen as an attempt to weaken support for his opponents among unemployed people, president Yoweri Museveni gifted boda bodas to his supporters and pledged to cause a reduction in five-year licensing fees from nearly $100 USD to about $27 USD under new rules set to be announced later this year, according to the Transport Licensing Board.

That decision would make it even easier for Ugandans to become boda boda owners.

“Our problem is not the Boda Boda, the problem is regulation and regulations that applies to everyone equally where you have a certain category of people trying to ride above the law, they drive on the wrong side of the road they respect no traffic rules they run through traffic rules you are going to have a problem," says Charles Mwanguhya.

He is the corporate affairs manager of Tugende, a company that has been financing thousands of young men in their dream of buying motorcycles, says the government has failed to understand the sector.

"I will go back to Tugende for example from earlier on Tugende started the culture among riders; one you must have your helmet on at all times, you have your reflector jackets which government has been trying to emphasize now and enforce, if you drive through a traffic light and we caught you, back then, you would be fined for that - so we had very disciplined riders on the roads.”

The price of a new boda-boda is about $1,500 USD.