The Ministry of Works and Transport has proposed an electronic clocking-in system for Public Service Vehicle (PSV) drivers as part of new measures to track driver fatigue, enforce rest periods, and curb escalating road accidents across the country.
The proposal was presented on Monday, July 20, 2026, during a meeting with the Parliamentary Committee on Physical Infrastructure, chaired by Hon. Mwine Mpaka. Ministry officials appeared before the committee to report on recent investigations into deadly crashes and outline urgent safety and infrastructure reforms.
Winston Katushabe, the Commissioner for Transport Regulation and Safety, revealed that investigations into several fatal crashes in July exposed widespread non-compliance across the transport sector, including unlicensed buses, unaccredited drivers, mechanical failures, and weak enforcement.
Recent crashes in July resulted in heavy casualties, including 33 people killed in an Omoro District bus crash, 24 pupils from King David Junior School who died in a Kapchorwa bus accident, and one person killed when a bus collided with a train in Mukono. Official investigations attributed these crashes to speeding, reckless driving, poor driver judgment, unlicensed operators, and narrow road sections.
To address these hazards, the government plans to introduce the electronic clocking-in system to monitor drivers in real time at designated control points.
“Other than the medical tests, we want to look at fatigue as one of the challenges," Katushabe told lawmakers. "So it will tell us the driver, how many hours you have rested within 24 hours.”
The ministry is also reviewing its five-year National Road Safety Action Plan. Planned interventions include standardizing school buses, upgrading automated driver testing equipment, introducing stricter medical evaluations such as vision and color-blindness tests—and deploying digital verification systems to catch unlicensed vehicles and drivers.
During the session, Bukanga North County MP Hon. Nathan Byanyima urged bus owners to take responsibility for operational failures and called on the ministry to resume regular consultations with transport operators. Kole North County MP Hon. Samuel Opio Acuti questioned how unlicensed long-distance buses manage to clear multiple checkpoints without detection.
Beyond driver management, the Minister of State for Works and Transport, Hon. Fred Byamukama, outlined structural reforms to eliminate corruption and costly delays in road construction. He pointed to projects like the Busega–Mpigi Expressway, where initial costs jumped from Shs547 billion to over Shs1.3 trillion, and are projected to reach Shs2 trillion due to alignment changes and unacquired land prior to signing contracts.
To prevent future budget overruns, Byamukama announced that the government will no longer sign any road construction contract unless at least 50 percent of the required land has been acquired.
