KAMPALA — The government will begin impounding severely unroadworthy taxis operating in Greater Kampala from Monday, August 24, as part of a 100-day joint enforcement operation aimed at removing dangerous passenger vehicles from the roads.
Minister for Works and Transport Fred Byamukama announced the crackdown on Thursday, saying the operation will target taxis that are mechanically unsafe or beyond repair, rather than commercial vehicles simply because of their age.
The operation, dubbed Operation Ganyegenya, will be implemented by the Uganda Police Force across the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area, covering Kampala and surrounding areas.
Byamukama said government had identified taxis operating with serious mechanical defects, including vehicles whose seats, doors and steering components are being held together with makeshift materials.
“You find a taxi loaded with people, the seats are torn, some are tied with super glue. The conductor is holding a door with spagulu because it cannot lock. The driver is using a steering wheel tied with ropes,” Byamukama said.
He cited areas including Katuoso Road, Katooke, Kampala Road and the Mapera stretch as among locations where authorities had observed severely dilapidated taxis.
The minister said the vehicles pose risks not only to passengers but also to drivers, conductors and other road users. He also linked some severely dilapidated taxis to criminal activity, saying they can be used to hijack or rob unsuspecting passengers.
30 taxis inspected
According to reports from the ministry, a 60-day assessment of taxis at government vehicle inspection centres found that none of the 30 vehicles inspected met the required standards.
The finding has raised broader questions about the state of public transport in Kampala, where taxis remain one of the main means of moving commuters between the capital and surrounding districts.
The government says the latest operation is not intended to remove all taxis from the roads. Byamukama clarified that vehicles in good mechanical condition, including newer commercial vans commonly known as “drones”, will not be targeted simply because they are taxis.
Instead, enforcement will concentrate on vehicles classified as beyond repair.
The move comes after years of attempts to tighten regulation of Kampala’s taxi industry. Previous efforts to phase out ageing 14-seater vans or enforce stricter inspection requirements have faced resistance from operators, including threats of strikes.
Byamukama said government would not retreat from the latest operation because of political pressure or threats of industrial action.
“We cannot continue putting people’s lives at risk at the expense of votes, at the expense of strikes,” he said.
Safety versus availability
The crackdown, however, raises a question that is larger than the condition of a taxi: what happens to the passenger when the unsafe taxi disappears but the alternative does not?
Greater Kampala has a large and heavily dependent commuter population, with taxis serving routes that connect the city to Wakiso, Mukono and other surrounding areas. Removing vehicles from service without sufficient replacement capacity could create shortages, longer waiting times and higher transport costs on some routes.
The challenge is therefore not simply to take bad vehicles off the road. It is to make sure passengers have something safer to board.
Uganda’s Auditor General has previously raised concerns about weaknesses in public service vehicle regulation. An audit found that only a small proportion of the required PSV inspections had been conducted and that inadequate inspection capacity exposed the public to vehicles in poor mechanical condition. The audit also recommended stronger mechanisms for identifying licensed and unlicensed PSVs and sharing updated information with enforcement agencies.
Parliament has also previously debated compulsory inspection of commercial vehicles. In April 2026, parliamentary committee recommendations called for annual inspection of private vehicles and biannual inspection of commercial vehicles to establish roadworthiness and reduce emissions.
The government’s latest operation therefore arrives at the intersection of two longstanding problems: unsafe vehicles and inadequate public transport alternatives.
For taxi operators, the immediate question is how many vehicles will be impounded from Monday.
For passengers, the question is different: when the old taxi disappears, what replaces it?
And for government, the harder test will be whether Operation Ganyegenya becomes a sustained road-safety system rather than another crackdown that fades once the headlines disappear.
