One Killed, Three Injured In a Ntungamo-Kabale Highway Accident

A 39-year-old boda boda rider has been killed after a truck carrying fertiliser reportedly failed to negotiate the notorious Kyanamira Corner along the Ntungamo–Kabale Highway.

A 39-year-old boda boda rider has been killed after a truck carrying fertiliser reportedly failed to negotiate the notorious Kyanamira Corner along the Ntungamo–Kabale Highway. The accisents has renewed calls for the government to improve safety at one of Kabale District’s most dangerous accident blackspots.

The deceased has been identified as Gilbert Niwagaba, a resident of Kyibale Village in Kanjobe Parish, Kyanamira Sub-county. Three occupants of the truck were injured in the crash, while a female passenger escaped with minor injuries. The crash occurred at about 9:00 a.m. on Thursday at Kyanamira Trading Centre in Rwanyabiboga Village.

According to eyewitnesses, Niwagaba had parked his Bajaj Boxer motorcycle, registration number UFD 939Z, and was negotiating a fare with a female passenger travelling to Kabale Town when a FUSO truck, registration number UBK 071L, carrying sacks of NPK fertiliser and travelling towards Kabale, reportedly failed to negotiate the sharp corner.

The truck rammed into the motorcycle before dragging both the rider and the motorcycle into a roadside trench, where it came to a stop. Residents and police, assisted by a breakdown truck, recovered the vehicle from the trench. Niwagaba’s body was later retrieved from beneath the wreckage and sacks of fertiliser.

The three injured occupants of the truck were rushed to Kabale Regional Referral Hospital for treatment. The female passenger, who had been waiting to board the motorcycle, escaped without physical injuries but was taken to Mwesigye Clinic after reportedly collapsing from shock. James Basigyira, the deceased’s father, said his son had left home at about 8:30 a.m. for his usual boda boda stage at TUSU Fuel Station in Kabale Municipality before the family received news of the fatal crash.

He described the incident as devastating, saying the family had lost a hardworking son.Christopher Mugarura, a friend of the deceased, said Niwagaba leaves behind a widow and four children who depended on him as the family’s sole breadwinner.

Mugarura and the LC I Chairperson of Rwanyabiboga Village, Hope Tumukunde, said Kyanamira Corner has become a notorious accident blackspot and appealed to the government to install speed humps, warning signs and other traffic calming measures to prevent further loss of life. The crash caused a traffic jam lasting several hours along the busy Ntungamo–Kabale Highway.

Among those caught in the congestion was Ndorwa West Member of Parliament Eliab Naturinda Mporera, who blamed the continued crashes on the failure by the Ministry of Works and Transport to implement adequate safety measures despite repeated accidents at the location. He pledged to engage the ministry and other relevant authorities to push for the installation of warning signs, speed humps and other traffic calming measures.

Efforts to obtain an official police comment were unsuccessful. Kigezi Regional Police spokesperson Nelson Tumushime said he was away on official duties, while Kabale District Police Commander Charles Okello referred Uganda Radio Network to the Officer-in-Charge of Traffic.However, the Officer-in-Charge of Traffic at Kabale Police Station, Elizabeth Aloket, declined to comment, saying she was not authorised to speak on the matter.

The crash is the latest in a series of fatal accidents at Kyanamira Corner, a section of the Ntungamo–Kabale Highway that residents have repeatedly identified as a major accident blackspot. In October 2024, a fuel tanker overturned and caught fire at the same corner, killing its Kenyan driver.

A similar tanker crash at the site in December 2012 also claimed the life of another Kenyan driver after the vehicle exploded. In October 2017, a passenger bus travelling from Kigali to Kampala collided with a boda boda at the same location, killing the rider and his passenger before overturning and injuring several passengers.

Residents say unless the government urgently improves safety at the corner, more lives will continue to be lost on one of the busiest highways linking Uganda and Rwanda. URN