When pupils from King David Junior School died in a Thursday Road crash in Kapchorwa District, the tragedy prompted an immediate government response. The Ministry of Education and Sports suspended all school trips nationwide pending a review of existing safety guidelines. But as investigations continue into what caused one of Uganda’s deadliest school transport disasters in recent years, a more troubling picture is emerging.
The Ministry of Education already had detailed guidelines governing educational tours and school trips. Many of the safety measures now being discussed, including advance approval of journeys, roadworthy vehicles, qualified drivers and restrictions on long-distance travel for young children, were already contained in the Ministry of Education’s Guidelines on Educational Tours and Field Studies.
The question now confronting government is not whether new rules are needed, but why existing ones failed to prevent another tragedy. The King David crash is the latest in a series of serious accidents involving school transport. Just days before the Kapchorwa tragedy, a bus carrying 73 students from St. Paul Secondary School in Katakwi District rammed into a stationary trailer in Bugweri District, killing the driver and injuring 15 people, including 13 students. For many parents, the two crashes have reinforced concerns that school trips are increasingly being organised without adequate attention to safety.
Tom Buule, a parent from Zana, believes schools should not be allowed to undertake long-distance journeys without mandatory clearance from education authorities and traffic police. “Before any school goes for a trip beyond its district, police should inspect the vehicle and clear the driver,” Buule said. “Most of the accidents we have seen are linked to the mechanical condition of the vehicles transporting children. Accidents happen, but many risks are preventable.”
Buule proposes a mandatory travel permit issued only after inspectors verify the vehicle’s roadworthiness, the driver’s qualifications, passenger numbers and the planned route. Another parent, Martha Nakato, argues that schools often place greater emphasis on collecting excursion fees than demonstrating how children’s safety will be protected. “Schools should submit detailed routes, rest points and travel schedules. “Sometimes drivers are rushing to keep time instead of resting.” ,” she said.
For Mariam Nakigudde, whose child attends King David Junior School, the focus should be on regulating transport providers rather than banning educational trips altogether. She says parents deserve to know whether the vehicle has undergone mechanical inspection, whether the driver is properly licensed, and who owns the bus before children are allowed to travel.
Yet many of these concerns are already addressed in government policy. Pictures of the tyres of the bus in which the learners died have equally raised questions about traffic policing in the country. By observation, it appeared that two tyres were totally worn out, yet the bus was allowed to travel all the way from Kampala to Kapchorwa without being noticed by the traffic police deployed in the cities and beyond. Where were the traffic police?
Is this a typical case of systemic failure to enforce laws and regulations? Under the Ministry of Education’s Guidelines on Educational Tours and Field Studies, schools are required to obtain approval before undertaking educational tours, submit detailed itineraries indicating destinations, travel routes and stopovers, ensure that vehicles used are mechanically sound and complete journeys before 6 p.m.
The guidelines also discourage long-distance educational trips for nursery and lower primary pupils because of their age and vulnerability. Had those requirements been fully implemented, education stakeholders say several of the risks associated with the King David trip should have been identified before the bus left Kampala.
The tragedy is also not the first warning government has received. Last year, Parliament debated the safety of school trips following the deaths of two Daystar Junior School pupils in a crash on Mityana Road while returning from Kasese. Eleven other learners were injured.
The driver was reportedly fatigued after the long journey. During that debate, Kalungu West MP Joseph Ssewungu questioned why nursery and lower primary pupils continued to undertake long-distance trips despite clear ministry guidelines discouraging the practice.
He also criticised the Ministry of Education and Sports for failing to enforce its own regulations. Beyond safety, Ssewungu questioned whether expensive educational trips had become more commercial than educational. How can a trip cost more than the school fees parents are already paying, yet some of these children do not even get proper meals?” he asked. Then Speaker of Parliament Anita Among expanded the debate further, expressing concern over unsafe transport practices.
“I have even seen students and pupils travelling on lorries,” Among said. “At least those children were in a bus, but I have seen schools transporting learners on lorries.” She also questioned whether costly domestic and international trips were creating inequality among learners while placing unnecessary financial pressure on parents.
Responding on behalf of the government, then Minister of State for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives David Bahati assured Parliament that the Ministry of Education would address the concerns. “We will convey these concerns to the Minister for Education and Sports, and I am sure they will come to the House next week and make a statement,” Bahati said.
While guidelines remained in place, there has been little public evidence of stronger enforcement since that debate. The latest tragedy has therefore shifted attention from the rules themselves to the institutions responsible for enforcing them. Among the questions now being raised is whether the King David bus complied with existing requirements before it departed Kampala.
If reports that the bus was mechanically defective and overloaded are confirmed by investigators, how did it travel hundreds of kilometres without being stopped at any police checkpoint? Did education authorities verify the journey before departure? Were traffic officers notified as required? Was the vehicle inspected before leaving?
Police have not publicly answered those questions. However, one senior traffic police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly, acknowledged that enforcement remains complicated by legal limitations.
According to the officer, many of the Ministry of Education’s school travel guidelines are administrative directives rather than legally enforceable provisions under the Traffic and Road Safety Act. As a result, police cannot automatically prosecute schools simply for violating ministry guidelines unless a specific offence under traffic law has also been committed. “The ministry issued the directives, but some of them are not enforceable in their current form,” the officer said.
The officer cited the requirement that school buses complete their journeys before 6 p.m. Although the ministry directs schools to observe the deadline, police have limited legal authority to stop or prosecute a bus travelling after that time unless another traffic offence has occurred.
Following the King David crash, police intensified inspections of school transport and impounded two buses found to be operating in violation of traffic requirements. Even so, concerns remain. While travelling from Ndejje to Kampala on Friday, this reporter observed four school buses near Freedom City.
One of the buses appeared visibly overcrowded, with several learners seated on one another, raising fresh questions about the effectiveness of enforcement even after the latest tragedy. Traffic Police spokesperson SP Michael Kananura said the government is now reviewing the entire school transport safety framework.
He said an inter-ministerial committee comprising the Uganda Police Force, the Ministry of Education and Sports, and other agencies will review existing guidelines, identify legal gaps and recommend stronger enforcement mechanisms.
Private school leaders also acknowledge that the sector must accept part of the responsibility. Private Schools Association leader Hasadu Kirabira said preliminary reports suggest the King David bus developed mechanical problems before the crash, but the journey reportedly continued. “We, as stakeholders, need to sit down and talk about this,” Kirabira said, adding that strict compliance with existing guidelines could prevent similar tragedies.
Meanwhile, King David Junior School has closed for two weeks as families mourn. On Friday, grieving parents gathered at the school compound, praying and waiting for confirmation about the fate of their children.
For many of them, however, the tragedy has become about more than one crash. The government has suspended school trips while reviewing the existing framework. But parents, legislators and road safety advocates argue that Uganda’s greatest challenge may not be the absence of regulations. It is ensuring that the safeguards already in place are consistently enforced before another bus carrying schoolchildren sets off on the next journey-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
