Towed by Trouble: Uganda’s breakdown services vehicles raise eyebrows
With the 2026 elections approaching and infrastructure a hot campaign topic, road users are calling for serious reforms in transport enforcement—not just targeting drivers, but cleaning up the system as a whole.
In a strange twist of irony on Uganda’s roads, some of the very vehicles used by police to tow off “dangerous” or DMC (Dangerous Mechanical Condition) vehicles look like they belong in a scrap yard themselves.
Across Kampala and other major towns, it’s become a common sight: rusty, smoke-belching, decades-old breakdown trucks towing away cars deemed “unroadworthy.”
Often held together by little more than bolts and prayer, these breakdown vehicles look like they’d fail the very safety checks they enforce.
One such truck spotted along Jinja Road bore a broken taillight, shredded tires, and a badly cracked windshield. Yet, it was hauling a private saloon car, allegedly stopped for a “faulty indicator.”
“I was shocked,” said Derrick Mugerwa, a driver whose car was recently impounded. “They towed me with a truck that looked worse than mine. Its engine kept stalling, and it almost caused a jam on its own.”
These government-contracted or police-associated breakdown vehicles are often overlooked in the roadworthiness conversation.
While ordinary drivers are fined or have their cars impounded under the pretext of public safety, the trucks enforcing these rules seem to operate under a different standard.
“Ironically, these trucks are usually not subjected to the same Uganda Police Vehicle Inspection checks,” said a traffic officer who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“There’s a shortage of functional breakdown trucks, and many of these have been in use for more than 20 years.”
Road safety experts argue this undermines the credibility of traffic enforcement and could endanger public safety even further.
“Some of these breakdown trucks are more dangerous than the vehicles they tow,” says Eng. Rachel Tumusiime, a transport engineer. “They can lose brakes, stall in traffic, or spill oil on the road.”
On social media, Ugandans have turned their frustration into satire. Memes of old, collapsing breakdown trucks with captions like “Arrest the tow truck first” or “Who tows the tow truck?” have gone viral.
With the 2026 elections approaching and infrastructure a hot campaign topic, road users are calling for serious reforms in transport enforcement—not just targeting drivers, but cleaning up the system as a whole.
Until then, drivers may continue to face the peculiar fate of being towed by trucks that arguably shouldn’t be on the road at all.
