The Rajiv Legacy: Why 3rd May should become Uganda’s National Road Safety Day

Every four days in Uganda, a full bus-load of souls is wiped away. According to the 2025 Annual Traffic Police Report, our roads claim approximately 15 lives every single day. We must realize these are not just numbers to be filed away in a police report; they are invisible human costs that steal the very future of our nation.

The scale of this crisis reached a heartbreaking peak with the loss of Rajiv Ruparelia at the Busabala flyover. His passing, alongside the 63 lives lost in the October 2025 Kampala-Gulu crash, among others, serves as a haunting reminder that road carnage does not discriminate. Whether a prominent businessman, politician, or an anonymous traveler, the theatre of chaos on our highways—marked by overloaded lorries without reflectors and a lack of consistent enforcement—threatens us all.

We must now move beyond the cycle of mourning and stern warnings. History shows that individual tragedies can spark national movements. Just as Philly Bongoley Lutaaya moved a nation to fight HIV through transparency, we must use our grief to demand systemic change.

I propose that government gazette May 3rd, the anniversary of Rajiv’s tragic accident, as a National Safety Remembrance Day. This should not be a day for mere speeches, but a day for national accountability. It should be a deadline for the Ministry of Works to report on reflector mandates, for the Police to show progress in ending highway corruption, and for every Ugandan to commit to road discipline.

The time has come to honour the souls we have lost by protecting those who are still with us. Let May 3rd be the day we finally decide that a “bus-load of souls” is a price we are no longer willing to pay.