Driving in Uganda can be challenging and certainly made for the tuff hearted. You can encounter different experiences and this will very much depend on where you will travel across the country.

It is a blend of everything – you could quite easily see some of the worse driving on earth; from lorry, buses and commuter taxi drivers to the motor bike taxi (commonly known as ‘boda boda’) riders. All these share the same narrow roads and therefore many times the jungle law rules – ‘survival for the fittest’!

And not just to put you off driving in Uganda but … hello! As a caution, toughen up! You will need some defensive driving skills on board. And if you are the kind whose anxiety rises in a challenging situation, find a local driver to do it for you (at least for the first 3 months) while you observe and later get out there like a white dove on its Ugandan driving dry run.

That said, driving in Uganda is not all doom – In fact it can be fun and enhances a lot of your undiscovered driving skills, sharpens your judgment on the road and if you are a frequent traveller, it prepares you to drive anywhere in the world.

I have probably seen worse driving in some of the cities I have visited like; … no no, probably not good idea to mention here but you will certainly drive in those cities once you have passed the Ugandan test.

I have not even talked about the poor road worthiness; the mechanical condition of some of the cars and the mad traffic in Uganda particularly in the Capital Kampala … but there you are!

Here are a few things you need to know before you start driving in Uganda;

Driver’s licence/permit requirements;

If you possess a valid driver’s licence from another country and that licence is in English, it is very likely that you are permitted to drive in Uganda for a period of up to 3 months, after which you will be required to obtain a Ugandan driving licence.

But if your licence is not in English, then you should carry an approved translation of your licence and please find out before you start driving in Uganda and getting into all sorts of problems if your licence is part of the permitted lot that can be used for the first 3 months.

The alternative would be to obtain an international driving licence before travelling to Uganda – this is accepted in place of a Ugandan driving licence.