At the beginning of the week the government announced it would be introducing more regular checks for all motor vehicles as a measure to reduce accidents on our roads, following a weekend in which 28 people lost their lives in three road accidents along Masaka Road.
The government said that measure is intended to reduce the number of cars that are not fit to be on the road (commonly known as DMCs) and car owners would be required to have their vehicles checked once or twice a year to prove that they are road-worthy. According to the Ministry of Transport, public vehicles would be checked twice a year while private cars would be checked at least once.
What will shock many road users however are the fees that will be charged for the inspection; buses will be charged Shs800 for inspection while boda bodas will pay Shs45,000 for their inspection. Taxis are to pay Shs28,000 for the checks that will start in September.
A Ministry official said vehicle inspection for private cars will start three months after the inspection of public vehicles. When asked why buses were being charged much less than boda bodas, he said it was meant to encourage them to comply with the checks while the high fees for boda bodas are designed to discourage boda boda riding. Fees for private cars haven’t been fixed yet.