Cars and Transport

Interesting factoid; the wheel was never discovered in East Africa, where the hilly and forested terrain lent itself better to head porterage and transport by litter. The British built the Uganda Railway to transport missionaries in via Mombasa - and to be able to evacuate settlers in times of unrest.  The railway was also intended to reduce slavery by eliminating the need for porters.  Since 1997 rail services have been suspended but the number of cars on the streets has just exploded.

In Uganda cars drive on the left hand side, and the traffic signs are just like British ones.  Roundabouts are also commonplace here.  Traffic is truly dreadful during rush hour with gridlock on the busiest roads, so boda bodas (motorcyle taxis) weave dangerously in and out of stopped traffic and some drivers are so frustrated they will just start driving on the wrong side of the road.  I will never complain about the M25 in the UK or the 405 in Los Angeles again.  Just for example, on Friday night it took us 1.5 hours to travel by taxi about 8 miles out of Kampala city center to a party in the suburbs.  The roads in general (especially the dirt roads) have huge potholes- not so different from San Diego - and the really good taxi drivers are adept at avoiding them.

I learned more about cars in Uganda from Simon, who kindly drove the Pfizer gang to a pork joint for dinner last Tuesday.  Simon imports cars to Uganda from Japan, where of course cars are also right hand drive.  The cars arrive by ship in Mombasa where Simon picks them up and then he drives them across Kenya to Uganda, which takes about two days.  I asked Simon how to register an imported car in Uganda, and I think what he said was that you have to apply to the Uganda Revenue Authority for a log book on transfer of ownership of the vehicle.

Toyotas are very popular here and retain their resale value quite well.  You do see some Mercedes (luxury sedans as well as big trucks) but apparently in Uganda the resale value on a Mercedes is really low, so they are not a good investment.

Notwithstanding, at Uganda's first ever Vintage & Classic Auto Show at the Kampala Sheraton on June 16th, about half the cars on  display were beautiful Mercedes, still the car favored by Presidents, Professors and Uganda's elite.  This is Idi Amin's 1962 Mercedes.

1960's and 1970's muscle cars were also popular - here's a 1966 Ford Cortina

VW's were the other popular category, including a bright orange Camper Van and a multitude of Beetles every color of the rainbow