UNRA looking for private service providers to tow broken, abandoned cars

"The recently passed Traffic and Road Safety Law must be operationalized immediately in order for it to be enforced to ensure road safety," the Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, said during plenary.

In order to prevent traffic accidents, she also instructed the road body to collaborate with the traffic police to guarantee that such cars are removed as soon as feasible.

However, UNRA's manager of media relations, Allan Ssempebwa, said that in order to secure the funding required to begin removing all abandoned vehicles from roadways, UNRA has turned to larger stakeholder engagement.

He said that they are also searching for qualified service suppliers to carry out the work.

"We previously had a programme to tow all abandoned vehicles, but it was unable to begin without extensive stakeholder involvement and the necessary funding," he said.

Despite this, Ssempebwa said, "We know it helped because we tried to call on road users, especially motorists and owners of abandoned vehicles, to quickly take them off the road."

This comes against the backdrop of two high-profile accidents that occurred in a space of less than a week, killing a high-profile businessman, Apollo Nyegamehe (Apollo), and a Lira district former Erute North Member of Parliament, Charles Angiro Gutomoi.

This was followed by an emergence meeting that was attended by quite a number of stakeholders, such as the police, UNRA, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Works, among others.