You think the traffic jam in Kampala is unbearable, think again because it could get a lot worse. It a the reason for those with cars to celebrate, even those with battered rides that should be in Katwe making sigiris have reason to pat themselves on the back, because only three in 1,000 Ugandans own cars.
This is according to figures released by the Economist’s Economist magazine’s new Pocket World in Figures, 2015.
Uganda shares the no.3 position of the world’s lowest car ownership with Rwanda. At number one are Ethiopia and Somalia where only one in 1,000 people has a car!
Bangladesh, Burundi, Chad, Laos and Liberia sit in no.2 position with only two people in 1,000 owning a car. Congo comes in at no.4 with only four people owning a car in every 1,000.
In comparison, 782 people out of every 1,000 own a car in Monaco.
Beer consumption
Ugandans praise themselves for drinking Monday to Monday, 24/7, but we don’t feature on the list of the biggest alcohol consumers. Czech Republic leads with 144 litres per head, followed by Germany with 106.5 litres per head to Estonia standing at 103.5, with Ireland and Austria tying at 102.3 litres per head.
Robberies
Visit areas like Kisenyi and you will most probably hand over your mobile phone without a fight because you can’t put up a fight with those “nyugunyas.” In Mukono the iron bar thieves reign supreme, but Uganda is relatively safe compared to countries like Belgium where 1806 people out of every 100,000 are robbed. Argentina stands at 974 people, Spain at 867, Costa Rica at 855 and Mexico at 655.
Weed
With the way Ghetto president Bobi Wine sings about “esadda” you might think we rank next to Jamaica in doing weed, but Jamaica also doesn’t feature anong the top cannabis abusers. At number one are Italy, New Zealand with 14.6% percent of every 1,000 people having used Cannabis at least once a year. Nigeria is no. 2 with 14.3%, USA is no, 3 with 14% and Bermuda is no.4 with 10.9%