Every day in Kampala, millions of people inch through gridlock, dodge swarming boda-bodas threading through narrow gaps in traffic, inhale dangerously polluted air, and walk along streets rarely designed for pedestrians. These conditions, and more, are often dismissed as ordinary transport frustrations. Yet researchers at Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH) are examining how such everyday realities translate into public health outcomes, shaped not simply by congestion, but by governance, policy, and power. Their work forms part of a multi-country project investigating the political economy of urban mobility in three African cities.
A boda-boda rider navigates floodwaters alongside a car on a waterlogged road in Kampala’s Industrial Area in 2024, highlighting how rapid urban development, inadequate drainage, and car-oriented road design combine to heighten daily mobility risks for vulnerable road users.
Co-led by Dr. Aloysius Ssennyonjo, the Principal Investigator and health systems and governance researcher at MakSPH, together with Uganda’s Country Principal Investigator, Dr. Esther Bayiga-Zziwa, a road safety and injury epidemiologist, and Co-Principal Investigator Dr. Jimmy Osuret, an injury prevention researcher, the project titled The Political Economy of Urban Mobility Policies and Their Health Implications in African Cities (PUMA) applies a political economy lens to understand how political interests, institutional arrangements, and power dynamics shape mobility systems and their consequences for public health in Kampala, Kigali, and Lilongwe.
To note, political economy analysis examines how public decisions are shaped by the interplay of politics, interests, institutions, and resources, in short, who has influence, who controls what, and how money and power circulate within a system. In Kampala, a capital of nearly two million residents whose daytime population swells with commuters, this lens helps explain why some transport options attract funding and enforcement while others are tolerated, neglected, or contested. These choices are not just technical, but reflect competing interests and priorities, with consequences for safety, equity, and the everyday well-being of those moving through the city.
Illustration of the Index of Sustainable Urban Mobility (I_SUM) in a planned city, highlighting how transport, accessibility, environmental, social, infrastructure, and political factors jointly shape mobility outcomes. Source: Internet.
Now, through the NIHR-funded project, the Ugandan team is currently working with colleagues from the University of Rwanda, led by Professor David Tumusiime, and Kamuzu University of Health Sciences in Malawi, led by Dr. Dominic Nkhoma. The research partnership aims to generate evidence that can strengthen mobility governance and improve public health outcomes across the three African cities above, with advisory support for the research consortium from the University of Antwerp in Belgium and Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK.
Explaining the project’s rationale for the Politics of Urban Mobility, or PUMA, during the 2025 Universal Health Coverage Day webinar held on December 12 under the theme “Mobility, Costs, and Politics: How Urban Systems Shape Access and Progress Towards Universal Health Coverage in African Cities,” Principal Investigator Dr. Ssennyonjo said Africa is urbanising at an unprecedented pace. Projections show that by 2050, nearly 60% of the continent’s population will live in cities, a shift that is intensifying transport pressures and increasingly turning everyday mobility into a public health risk.
Participants at the PUMA Stakeholder Analysis Workshop held on November 21, 2025, where policymakers, practitioners, and researchers examined how political and governance dynamics shape urban mobility and public health outcomes in Kampala.
“Rapid urbanisation has created multiple challenges: transport systems are under strain, risks and vulnerabilities are rising, and opportunities for healthy behaviours such as walking are often limited. Access to livelihoods is also affected, with broad implications for health,” Ssennyonjo noted, adding: “Crucially, these issues are shaped by political and governance dynamics, yet few initiatives explicitly address them. This gap motivated our focus on the politics and governance of urban mobility.”
Dr. Aloysius Ssennyonjo, Principal Investigator of the PUMA project, speaks during the Stakeholder Analysis Workshop on November 21, 2025, highlighting the role of politics and governance in shaping urban mobility and public health outcomes in Kampala.
He mentioned that health outcomes are shaped by social, economic, and environmental factors, with transport costs, risks, and stress often posing greater barriers than medical fees alone to achieving affordable health for all. He noted that the PUMA project brings together multidisciplinary teams to study how governance and political dynamics shape urban mobility, public health, and development, a perspective reflected in Prof. Julius Kiiza’s observation that effective urban development relies on coordinated action by diverse stakeholders across sectors to improve health outcomes, though emphasising the primacy of politics.
“Uganda and Singapore had comparable levels of underdevelopment in the 1960s. Under Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore embarked on a deliberate nation-building project. Today, it is among the smartest cities globally, outperforming many Western cities in clean government, mobility, and liveability. Why are we lagging behind? The answer, I argue, lies largely in the nature of our politics,” Prof. Julius Kiiza cogently argued.
He intimated that the result has been cities that are “unreliable, unsafe, unsmart, and chaotic,” noting that claims of inclusive urban development often ring hollow. “I have argued, and repeat here, that boda bodas as a symbol of inclusivity represent a false model of inclusion. We must interrogate this and invest in better urban transport systems and wider, well-planned highways,” he affirmed.
Prof. Julius Kiiza, Professor of Political Science, speaking during a PUMA team–organised Universal Health Coverage Day webinar, highlighted how politics and governance shape urban mobility and public health outcomes. December 12, 2025.
Prof. Kiiza urged policymakers and practitioners to move beyond piecemeal technical fixes and instead treat urban mobility as a governance challenge requiring coordinated, cross-sector action. He stressed the importance of aligning transport planning with public health, housing, employment, and skills development, arguing that safer, more liveable cities depend on institutions that work together and are accountable to the public. Such reforms, he noted, demand sustained political commitment and inclusive dialogue across government, academia, civil society, and the private sector, precisely the terrain the PUMA project is engaging, by convening stakeholders and shaping a shared research agenda around Uganda and the continent’s urban mobility challenge.
Students cross a busy road in Kampala, Uganda, navigating traffic dominated by cars and motorcycles—an everyday reality that highlights the public health and safety risks shaping urban mobility in the city. 2024.
Indeed, on November 21, 2025, the Ugandan team convened a national stakeholder workshop in Kampala, bringing together a wide range of stakeholders. Opening the workshop, Assoc. Prof. Suzanne Kiwanuka, Head of the Department of Health Policy, Planning and Management (HPPM) at MakSPH, commended the team for highlighting what she described as a long-underexplored dimension of Uganda’s urban health landscape: mobility and its governance.
Reflecting on her own experience, she noted how boda-bodas have become increasingly indispensable for millions seeking quick, flexible transport, but also carry complex health, safety, and economic implications that demand multisectoral attention, calling for a balanced, evidence-driven dialogue that recognises their value while also addressing the infrastructural and policy gaps that shape mobility systems in Uganda’s rapidly growing cities.
“I sometimes use boda-bodas,” Assoc. Prof. Suzanne Kiwanuka said. “They are necessary when you need to move quickly during heavy traffic. Yet we all know how unsafe they can be. This PUMA initiative is timely to generate evidence not only on the politics of urban mobility and its health implications, but also its economic consequences.”
Prof. Suzanne Kiwanuka, Head of the Department of Health Policy, Planning and Management, addresses participants during a PUMA stakeholder workshop, emphasising the need for evidence-informed, multisectoral approaches to urban mobility and public health governance in Kampala.
Notably, road traffic crashes remain one of Uganda’s most urgent public health threats today. The recent Uganda Police Force Annual Crime Report 2024 recorded 5,144 road deaths, a seven per cent rise from 2023, with motorcyclists accounting for nearly half of all fatalities. In Kampala, pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcycle riders constitute 94 per cent of all fatal crashes, according to the Kampala Capital City Authority. Thousands more suffer life-altering injuries each year.
Still, evidence from MakSPH, through its Centre for Trauma, Injury and Disability Prevention (C-TRIAD) and the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU) under the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS), shows that the design and use of city roads are worsening the risk environment. Between 2021 and 2023, the team conducted more than one million roadside observations across Kampala, finding that while only five per cent of vehicles are officially recorded as speeding, those that do travel at an average of 57 km/h, well above safe limits for dense urban corridors, making city roads increasingly unsafe.
The motorcycle rider at the centre of the image is travelling against the flow of traffic in Kampala, highlighting everyday road-use practices that increase safety risks in the city. 2024.
The World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, cited in the report, recommend speed limits of 30 km/h on community roads and in urban areas where pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable road users share space with motorised traffic, and 50 km/h on major urban roads. Yet the findings show that six in ten vehicles on community roads exceed these limits, heightening risks for those least protected and underscoring the need for lower-speed zones, traffic-calming measures such as speed humps and raised crossings, and consistent enforcement of traffic regulations.
For the PUMA team in Uganda, the writing on the wall shows that these rising injuries coincide with worsening congestion and rapid urbanisation, yet city mobility policies within Kampala remain heavily oriented toward road expansion and vehicular flow, with limited attention to safety, health protection, or non-motorised transport. This policy imbalance, then, explains why daily commuting remains hazardous and why progress on safer streets has been slow.
A designated non-motorised transport corridor on Namirembe Road, Kampala, intended for pedestrians, is partially occupied by parked motorcycles and roadside trading. The scene highlights how everyday encroachment weakens urban mobility interventions aimed at improving safety and walkability. November 2025.
The study uses a three-tiered approach that combines policy analysis, regional evidence, and local experiences to examine how mobility decisions are made in Kampala, Kigali, and Lilongwe, who holds authority, and how these processes affect public health and equity. This is strengthened by structured co-creation workshops with practitioners, policymakers, and community actors, which reveal how governance functions in practice, often diverging from what is written on paper.
In parallel, the research team is conducting a continent-wide review of academic and grey literature to map regional trends, gaps, and the broader forces shaping African mobility systems. Together, these streams enable the researchers to compare cities, identify shared challenges, and build a grounded analytical framework for improving mobility governance across Africa.
In Kampala, preliminary findings by the MakSPH PUMA research team show a city governed by many mobility policies but marked by weak mobility governance. The team shared that Kampala operates under a dense mix of frameworks, from the National Integrated Transport Master Plan and National Urban Policy to road safety, climate, and KCCA development plans. While these documents acknowledge congestion, urbanisation, and road injury risks, they also reveal overlapping mandates, blurred institutional roles, and limited coordination authority.
Minibuses crowd a busy transport hub in Kampala, reflecting the scale and intensity of the city’s paratransit-based transport system and the planning challenges shaping everyday mobility. 2024.
Key government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) actors include the Ministry of Works and Transport, KCCA, the Ministry of Lands, the Office of the Prime Minister, and the Ministry of Finance, with the Ministry of Health conspicuously absent despite clear health implications. Policy attention, according to the early findings, remains heavily skewed toward road transport, leaving non-motorised mobility and major health pathways, noise exposure, psychosocial stress, community severance, heat, and mobility independence largely unaddressed.
Governance realities are further shaped by political processes, including electoral cycles, informal negotiations with transport unions, selective regulation of boda-bodas, and heavy reliance on development partners that often influence what is prioritised and implemented. Together, these dynamics help explain stalled master plans, inconsistent enforcement, and resistance to progressive interventions. While the PUMA research remains at a preliminary stage currently, the emerging findings underscore the need for an integrated, multisectoral mobility agenda that places health at the centre of Kampala’s transport policy and practice.
Motorcycle riders travel alongside a heavy truck emitting exhaust fumes on a road in Kampala, illustrating how daily urban transport exposes road users to air pollution and related public health risks. 2024.
Makerere University School of Public Health, in collaboration with Jhpiego, invites applications for 49 short-term positions under the Scaling the Optimal Use of Multiple ACTs to Prevent Antimalarial Drug Resistance (STOP-AMDR) Project.
The short-term assignments will support data collection in Buikwe and Busia districts, with some national-level activities. Applicants are encouraged to review the requirements for their preferred position before applying.
Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH), through the Africa-Europe Cluster of Research Excellence (CoRE) for Preparedness and Response to Pandemics and Shocks, has shared findings from its study of Uganda’s Mpox response with stakeholders in Kasese, Amuru, Nakasongola and Mayuge districts to strengthen district preparedness for future outbreaks.
The Africa-Europe CoRE is a partnership co-led by MakSPH and the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters at UCLouvain, Belgium. It brings together universities in Africa and Europe to strengthen research, training and preparedness for pandemics and other public health shocks.
The district-level dissemination meetings, held from 10 to 14 August 2026, brought together more than 100 local government, health and security officials, Village Health Teams, implementing partners and community representatives. The meetings enabled stakeholders to validate the district-level findings, identify practical actions and provide feedback for the study’s final analysis and national dissemination.
Mr. Philliam Jabim shares the Mpox response study findings with participants during the dissemination meeting in Nakasongola District on 12 August 2026.
Uganda confirmed its first two Mpox cases on 24 July 2024 at Bwera Hospital in Kasese District. The Ministry of Health declared an outbreak on 2 August 2024. As documented in the study, the response involved health workers, communities, local governments, security agencies, political leaders, and implementing partners.
In response to the outbreak, a MakSPH research team led by Prof. Rhoda Wanyenze, Dr. Rawlance Ndejjo, Dr. Steven Kabwama and Mr. Douglas Bulafu conducted a study in May 2025 to assess Uganda’s Mpox response, including its policies, interventions, strategies and challenges, and generate lessons to inform recovery and strengthen preparedness for future public health emergencies.
Using purposive sampling, the research team conducted 20 key informant interviews and five focus group discussions in each of the four districts, drawing perspectives from western Uganda in Kasese, northern Uganda in Amuru, central Uganda in Nakasongola and eastern Uganda in Mayuge.
Participants and the MakSPH research team at the Mpox response study dissemination meeting in Nakasongola District on 12 August 2026.
The study, titled Assessment of the Mpox Response in Uganda: Documenting Challenges, Lessons and Innovations to Strengthen Emergency Preparedness and Response Capacities, was funded by the Government of Uganda through the Makerere UniversityResearch and Innovation Fund (Mak-RIF).
“This study is helping us move beyond recounting the Mpox response to identifying the actions that districts and national partners can take before the next outbreak. By validating the findings with stakeholders who led and experienced the response, we are ensuring that the evidence reflects local realities and can inform stronger surveillance, risk communication, coordination and community engagement,” said Mr. Bulafu, who led the MakSPH team during the dissemination meeting in Amuru.
Mr. Douglas Bulafu engages participants during the Mpox response study dissemination meeting in Amuru District on 10 August 2026.
In Amuru, the 10 August meeting brought together over 25 stakeholders from the district health team, political leadership, security agencies, Village Health Teams, implementing partners and the community. On the same day, a second MakSPH team, led by Mr. Keneth Sebukeera and Mr. Filimin Niyongabo, convened stakeholders in Kasese for a parallel validation meeting. The consultations then continued in Nakasongola on 12 August and concluded in Mayuge on 14 August, extending the study’s engagement across all four districts.
Across the districts, stakeholders said the results reflected their experience during the outbreak. They pointed to strengths in leadership, coordination, community engagement and partner support, while also describing gaps in documentation, logistics, diagnostic access, staffing, risk communication, public trust and continuity of essential health services.
They also noted inconsistent implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO) 7-1-7 target, which calls for detecting a suspected outbreak within seven days, notifying public health authorities within one day and completing early response actions within seven days.
The MakSPH research team, led by Mr. Keneth Sebukeera and Mr. Filimin Niyongabo, with participants during the Mpox response study dissemination meeting in Kasese District on 10 August 2026.
In Kasese, stakeholders highlighted gaps in documentation, financial and logistical resources, and human resources. They identified Village Health Teams and grassroots, religious and cultural leaders as important resources for community surveillance and risk communication. They called for stronger collaboration between technical and non-technical leaders, engagement with traditional healers, greater use of local radio for public sensitisation, and better facilitation of district epidemic response teams to reach distant communities.
Amuru participants called for proactive preparedness in the border district, citing misinformation and rumours as barriers to risk communication. They urged timely, accurate information from health workers and other authorities; training in disease surveillance and grant writing to strengthen capacity and resource mobilisation; and compassionate care, psychosocial support and community awareness to reduce stigma and support survivor reintegration.
During the meeting in Nakasongola, stakeholders identified Community Health Workers and Community Health Extension Workers as potential resources for strengthening community surveillance and addressing workforce shortages. Given the district’s position around Lake Kyoga and along the Kampala-South Sudan transit corridor, they also called for stronger documentation, note-taking and reporting, accurate real-time information, closer communication with the Ministry of Health, and collaboration among technical, political, religious and community leaders.
Ms. Eunice Vivian Asingo, Senior Nursing Officer at Nakasongola Health Centre IV, contributes to the discussion during the Mpox response study dissemination meeting in Nakasongola District on 12 August 2026.
Ms. Eunice Vivian Asingo, Senior Nursing Officer at Nakasongola Health Centre IV, called for a permanent, adequately resourced outbreak-management centre to help protect routine services during future epidemics. “We appeal for better facilities to manage epidemics and outbreaks. At Nakasongola Health Centre IV, spaces previously used for outbreak management have been repurposed for other services, and we have limited staff. During the Mpox response, colleagues assigned to manage patients later returned to the general team, creating fear among staff already under pressure,” she said.
In Mayuge, Dr. Basembeza highlighted leadership, coordination and surveillance structures operating from district to community level as important factors in the response. He said the structures enabled the district to receive and respond quickly to community alerts. “Whenever there is a rumour or an alert, we are able to respond. Within 20 minutes, we had a response because of the structure we have,” Dr. Basembeza said.
Based on the findings, the research team recommends increased preparedness financing, stronger community engagement, decentralised diagnostic services through stronger district laboratory capacity, and improved health information and research systems.
Across the four districts, stakeholders reaffirmed that trusted community structures and coordinated action across sectors are essential to strengthening outbreak preparedness.
Every academic year, a new group of students enters Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH) with different professional backgrounds, questions and ambitions. For the School, each cohort adds to a growing community of professionals and researchers shaping public health practice, policy and research in Uganda and beyond.
On Friday, 7 August 2026, MakSPH held its orientation for newly admitted students for the 2026/2027 academic year at the MakSPH Auditorium. The orientation introduced students to the School’s academic programmes, leadership, departments, academic administration, student support services and expectations for university life.
For this academic year, ending July 2027, Makerere University admitted more than 370 students to academic programmes hosted at MakSPH. The intake comprised 75 students in the Bachelor of Environmental Health Science, the School’s only bachelor’s programme, 277 across the nine master’s programmes, and 21 across the two doctoral programmes, PhD by Research and PhD by Coursework and Research.
Dean Prof. Rhoda Wanyenze (centre) with MakSPH staff, student leaders and new students during orientation for the 2026/2027 academic year.
The master’s intake includes 103 students in the Master of Public Health by Distance Education, the highest enrolment for the year, followed by 59 in the Master of Public Health Full-Time. The remaining students joined programmes in Biostatistics, Environmental and Occupational Health, Health Informatics, Health Services Research, Monitoring and Evaluation, Nutrition, and Public Health Disaster Management. Together, the programmes reflect the breadth of knowledge and skills needed to address public health challenges and bring together students pursuing further training from diverse professional backgrounds.
Welcoming the new cohort, MakSPH Dean Prof. Rhoda Wanyenze urged students to approach their studies with purpose, discipline, and resilience, and focus on what they would be able to do with the knowledge and skills they acquire.
“Please find time to enjoy your journey. I know you’re looking ahead to exams and so many other pressures, but let this journey also be one that you enjoy in terms of what you learn and how you grow, so that you leave here better, not because of the paper that you took but because of the capability that you pick up during your time with us.”
MakSPH Dean Prof. Rhoda Wanyenze addresses new students at orientation for the 2026/2027 academic year, 7 August 2026, MakSPH Auditorium, urging them to value capability over paper.
The Dean’s message speaks to the different reasons students are beginning their journeys at MakSPH. For some, the opportunity is to build on professional experience and strengthen their capacity in roles they already hold. Among them is Dr. Judith Nalukwago, a dental surgeon, former 85th Vice Guild President of Makerere University, and Makindye Division III Lord Councillor, who serves as Executive Secretary for Education, Gender and Public Health at City Hall and the Office of the Lord Mayor.
“I am back here to study a Master’s in Public Health. I am very excited. I have a clinical background and have been practising as a clinician, and it has been a joyful experience. But when I joined the journey of leadership, there were challenges because, as Executive Secretary for Public Health in Kampala, we deal with everyday people’s health challenges,” said Dr. Nalukwago, adding:
“Now I am in management and leadership, and that posed a challenge to me as an individual. I asked myself, what course can I do to add to my skills? Where can I gain skills that can help me overcome this challenge while I am dealing with people? And I remembered that we have the School of Public Health at Makerere University.”
Watch: Dr. Judith Nalukwago on why she returned to MakSPH for a Master’s in Public Health:
Her experience during the Ebola response, when she served on the task force, further highlighted the need for broader public health knowledge. She said the training would strengthen her ability to contribute to policy and public health management, particularly in her role at City Hall, where councillors develop policies, bylaws, and ordinances.
For Mr. John Othieno, the motivation is similarly grounded in applying his training to practical problems. A Software Engineering graduate who previously completed a Master’s in Health Informatics at MakSPH, he has returned to pursue a PhD under the Department of Health Policy, Planning and Management. His research focuses on using technology and health informatics to address health-system challenges, including the adoption of picture archiving and communication systems for managing healthcare imaging and data. He said he wants his research to produce solutions that can be applied beyond academia.
“I purposed that, in my academic journey, I would not do research for the sake of having it gather dust on the shelves, but that it would actually be actionable research that can be translated into action, into solutions for our population,” he said.
Watch: Mr. John Othieno on why he returned to MakSPH to pursue a PhD in Public Health:
Nalukwago and Othieno reflect the diverse professional backgrounds that come together at MakSPH, where training, research, and community engagement have been central to the School’s work for over seven decades. Their journeys point to a sustained impact on public health education, seen not only in enrolment and graduate numbers but in the skills and expertise those graduates carry into policy, research, and health systems across Uganda and the region. At the close of the 2024/2025 academic year, MakSPH enrolled 1,140 students across 12 degree programmes, more than 90 percent of them in postgraduate training.
At Makerere University’s 76th Graduation Ceremony on 25 February 2026, MakSPH presented 231 graduates, comprising seven doctoral, 195 master’s and 29 bachelor’s graduates, adding to the health workforce within the region. Among the graduates was Dr. Harriet Aber, who completed her PhD on child substance use in Uganda’s health system and shared her experience with the new cohort during the orientation. She spoke candidly about the demands of postgraduate study and the need to remain positive through its challenges.
Dr. Harriet Aber, a MakSPH PhD graduate, shares her postgraduate journey with new students at orientation, 7 August 2026, MakSPH Auditorium, urging them to maintain a positive attitude through the challenges ahead.
“It’s not a rosy journey. You’re going to have so many moments where you celebrate, where you’re happy about something, but there are also several moments when maybe you’re stuck with the paper, you have to respond to comments, the proposal is not moving, the concept is not clear. Throughout all those processes, one of the things that you just have to maintain is having a positive attitude,” Aber affirmed.
Her experience offered the new cohort a glimpse of the journey ahead, while Prof. Wanyenze’s message focused on how they could make the most of it. The Dean urged students to plan ahead, pursue research opportunities, think independently, and use artificial intelligence responsibly, while seeking mentorship and making full use of the support and opportunities available at the School.
“Our students are our colleagues, and they are our future workmates. Many of them have ended up staying with us. And I know many of you are going to stay with us in the School,” the Dean said, urging students to take seriously the relationships they build with their classmates and faculty, because “we are a network that’s bound together in the same profession.”
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