The Director of Traffic Police, Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIGP) Lawrence Nuwabiine, has revealed plans to engage with the judiciary to establish specialized traffic magistrate courts.
AIGP Nuwabiine made the revelation while speaking about the recently released 2024 traffic report. He stated that offenders have become accustomed to paying routine fines. The report showed that 426,432 traffic offenses were committed in 2024, while the total number of road crashes was 25,107.
The report further indicated that 5,144 Ugandans lost their lives in traffic accidents in 2024, averaging 14 deaths per day.
Among the many steps intended to address the rising number of road crashes and offenses, Nuwabiine said, “We have started engaging the judiciary to designate a specific magistrate to handle traffic offenses so that we see custodial punishments. Here, we shall be able to deal with those characters that don’t want to change.”
Additionally, several measures are being implemented, including mandatory vehicle inspections to remove unroadworthy cars from the roads, automated driver testing to ensure proper training, intelligent traffic monitoring systems for real-time enforcement, and infrastructure improvements such as dedicated pedestrian and cyclist lanes.
