Gov’t moves to introduce mandatory colour coding for school buses and vans

What the report says

The Independent Uganda, citing URN, reports that Uganda’s government is preparing to require all school buses and vans to use mandatory colour coding as part of a broader push to improve learner safety on the roads. The proposal is one of the recommendations from a recently formed inter-ministerial committee reviewing school transport after a fatal accident in Kapchorwa involving pupils and a teacher returning from a school trip.

Assistant Inspector General of Police Lawrence Nuwabiine, the Director of Traffic and Road Safety, said the committee’s work has expanded beyond school excursions to cover the routine movement of learners between home and school. According to the report, officials are concerned about school vans that are overloaded, poorly maintained, driven recklessly or operated on unsafe routes and schedules. The article also notes that many children use boda bodas, sometimes with several pupils on one motorcycle and without adequate protective gear.

The proposed colour-coding system is intended to make school transport more visible and easier for traffic officers to identify and monitor. Nuwabiine said wider rules are being developed and that enforcement will be central, after earlier school transport guidelines suffered from weak implementation. The specific colour, rollout timeline and enforcement procedures have not yet been announced and are expected after the guidelines are finalised.

The report places Uganda’s plans in a regional context, noting that Kenya has moved toward stricter school transport regulation, including distinctive school vehicle identification and operating rules. The development matters because it signals a shift from ad hoc responses to crashes toward a more structured system for supervising vehicles that carry children.