Traffic offences and the Express Penalty Scheme in Uganda

Practice note Road & traffic Updated 6 July 2026 14 min read AI-assisted · review recorded

In brief

The Express Penalty Scheme (EPS) lets a driver settle a minor, scheduled traffic offence by paying a fixed penalty instead of standing trial. It runs under the Traffic and Road Safety Act, Cap. 361 and the Traffic and Road Safety (Express Penalty Scheme for Road Traffic Offenders) Regulations, 2024 (S.I. 56 of 2024), which replaced the 2013 scheme: a traffic officer issues an express penalty notice for a scheduled minor offence (speeding, no seatbelt, no insurance, handheld phone use and similar), and the offender pays within the stated time — 72 hours — to dispose of the matter without a court conviction. Missing that window adds a 50% surcharge and exposes the offender to prosecution in the ordinary way. Serious offences (for example causing death by reckless or dangerous driving) are never express-penalty matters. Penalties are set in currency points (one currency point = UGX 20,000) — confirm the current schedule before advising a client on the figure.

1. At a glance

What this note covers

The Express Penalty Scheme (EPS) lets an officer offer a driver the chance to discharge liability for a minor, scheduled traffic offence by paying a fixed penalty — no court appearance, no conviction. It runs under the Traffic and Road Safety (Express Penalty Scheme for Road Traffic Offenders) Regulations, 2024, which replaced the 2013 scheme of the same name. Payment is due within 72 hours; missing that window adds a 50% surcharge and keeps prosecution open. Serious offences never qualify.

This note is for drivers who have received an express penalty notice and for the advocates, pupils and clerks advising them on what it means and what to do next. It is not a defence guide for a serious traffic prosecution (causing death by reckless or dangerous driving, driving under the influence resulting in injury, and similar charges go through the ordinary criminal process, not this scheme), and it does not cover licence suspension or disqualification following a conviction — see the driving-licence note for that.

A word of caution on dates and numbering: the statutory references below are verified against the Laws of Uganda as consolidated at 31 December 2023. Uganda's 7th Revised Edition of the Principal Laws took effect on 1 July 2024 and reassigned chapter numbers thematically across fourteen volumes; whether 'Cap. 361' survived that exercise unchanged could not be independently confirmed for this note, so treat the chapter number as correct as at 31 December 2023 and re-verify it against the current official volumes before relying on it in a live matter.

2. What the Express Penalty Scheme actually is

The EPS is a diversion mechanism, not a separate offence-creating regime. The underlying offences — speeding, driving without a valid licence, driving over the prescribed blood-alcohol limit, careless or inconsiderate driving, using a handheld phone while driving, not wearing a seatbelt, obstructing or parking unlawfully on the road, and driving without insurance — already exist as offences under the Traffic and Road Safety Act, Cap. 361 and its subsidiary regulations. What the EPS adds is a second, faster track: instead of the offence going straight to prosecution, the officer offers the driver the chance to pay a fixed penalty and close the matter there and then.

The scheme is not new. The current version — the Traffic and Road Safety (Express Penalty Scheme for Road Traffic Offenders) Regulations, 2024 (S.I. 56 of 2024), gazetted on 19 July 2024 — expressly revokes an earlier Express Penalty Scheme Regulations, S.I. 9 of 2013, that operated under the same title. An advocate who encounters a client's old notice, or an older textbook reference, should assume it was issued under the 2013 scheme and check whether the 2024 Regulations changed the relevant offence, penalty or procedure.

A shortcut, not an acquittal

Paying the express penalty is a practical, cost-and-time-saving alternative to a court appearance for a minor offence — it discharges the liability to conviction for that specific offence. It does not create a criminal record in the way a court conviction does, but it is also not a finding of innocence — it is a negotiated shortcut past prosecution.

3. The statutory framework

Two instruments work together, at different levels of the hierarchy.

The Traffic and Road Safety Act, Cap. 361

The Act supplies the enabling power. Section 157 provides for 'punishment without prosecution' for certain offences — on its face aimed at obstruction-and-parking-type conduct — and section 166 is the Minister's general power to make regulations, including regulations prescribing fines of not less than 2 and not more than 30 currency points. Both sections are cited as the source of the 2024 Regulations' authority.

The Traffic and Road Safety (Express Penalty Scheme for Road Traffic Offenders) Regulations, 2024

The Regulations do the practical work: they establish the scheme nationwide, tied into the Uganda Driver Licensing System and the Intelligent Transport Monitoring System (Reg. 2); prescribe the form of the express penalty notice and how it is issued, manually or electronically (Reg. 3); set out the Second Schedule of qualifying minor offences and their penalties; fix the 72-hour payment window and the 50% surcharge for late payment (Reg. 7); and revoke the 2013 scheme (Reg. 8). The Third Schedule confirms one currency point remains UGX 20,000.

How the Act and the Regulations fit together

The Act tells you the scheme is lawful and caps the penalty range; the Regulations tell you which offences qualify, how the notice is issued, and what happens if the driver does not pay in time. Read the Regulations for the operative detail — the Act is the source of authority, not the working rulebook.

4. Which offences qualify — the Second Schedule

Only offences listed on the Second Schedule of the 2024 Regulations may be dealt with by express penalty notice. The following figures were verified directly against the Schedule; treat any other figure quoted to you as unverified until checked against the current text.

Speeding, 1–30 km/h over the limit (s.108) — 10 currency points (UGX 200,000).
Speeding, more than 30 km/h over the limit (s.108) — 30 currency points (UGX 600,000).
Driving without a valid licence (s.32(1)) — 5 currency points (UGX 100,000).
Driving over the prescribed blood-alcohol limit (s.101) — 10 currency points (UGX 200,000).
No insurance (s.30(1)(c)) — 2 currency points (UGX 40,000).
Careless or inconsiderate driving (s.107) — 5 currency points (UGX 100,000).
Using a handheld mobile phone while driving (S.I. 99 of 2004, regs 3 and 5) — 5 currency points (UGX 100,000).
No seatbelt (S.I. 32 of 2004, reg 3(3)) — 2 currency points (UGX 40,000).
Obstructing or unlawfully parking on the road (s.157(1)(a)) — 5 currency points (UGX 100,000).

Worked example — the cost of delay

At 1 currency point = UGX 20,000, a driver clocked at 35 km/h over the limit faces a 30-currency-point express penalty — UGX 600,000 — payable within 72 hours, or a 50% surcharge takes it to UGX 900,000. The arithmetic alone is a good reason to pay promptly if the offence is not disputed.

Serious offences never appear on this Schedule and are never express-penalty matters — causing death by reckless or dangerous driving, driving under the influence causing injury or death, and similar charges go directly to prosecution.

5. The notice, the 72-hour window, and the surcharge

Where an officer has reason to believe a driver has committed a scheduled offence, the officer may issue an express penalty notice — manually on the spot or electronically through the Intelligent Transport Monitoring System (for camera-detected offences, for example) — stating the offence and the penalty and offering the driver the chance to discharge liability to conviction by payment (Reg. 3).

Read the notice: it identifies the offence, the penalty amount, and the payment channel.
Pay within 72 hours of issue to close the matter without a court conviction.
If payment is not made within 72 hours, a 50% surcharge is added automatically (Reg. 7).
An unpaid penalty can block renewal of the driver's licence through the Uganda Driver Licensing System, and — for a foreign licence-holder — can bar departure from the country until it is resolved.

Be precise about what the text actually says

The Regulations do not contain a clause reading verbatim 'non-payment shall lead to prosecution' — what the text does say is that the notice offers the discharge of liability to conviction, implying that declining or failing to pay leaves that liability undischarged. In practice, describe the consequence of non-payment as the surcharge, the licence-renewal block and the underlying offence remaining live for prosecution — rather than quoting a specific statutory phrase that does not exist in the text.

6. The EPS compared with ordinary prosecution

It helps to see the express penalty route side by side with the ordinary route it replaces, because the two differ in more than just speed.

Forum — an express penalty is settled with the traffic authority, through the notice and the payment channel; ordinary prosecution goes to a magistrate's court.
Outcome on payment — an express penalty discharges liability to conviction for that offence; a court case, if defended and lost, ends in a formal criminal conviction, which can carry licence disqualification and a criminal record.
Time — an express penalty is designed to close the matter within 72 hours (plus the surcharge window if missed); a contested prosecution can run for months.
Cost — an express penalty is a fixed, known amount set by the Second Schedule; a contested prosecution adds legal costs and, if the defence fails, the court's own sentence on top of the risk already carried by the underlying offence.
Right to contest — a driver always retains the right to decline the express penalty and have the matter heard in the ordinary way; nothing in the Regulations compels payment.

When contesting can make sense

Because payment discharges liability to conviction rather than adjudicating guilt, a client who is confident of a genuine defence (a faulty speed gun, for example, or mistaken identity of the vehicle) may rationally choose to decline and contest the notice, even though that costs more time than paying. Make sure the client understands both the extra cost of contesting and the fact that paying forecloses that route for the same alleged offence.

7. How the courts have approached the scheme

There is, as of this writing (July 2026), no verifiable filed court case testing the Express Penalty Scheme itself — neither its 2013 predecessor nor the current 2024 Regulations. A coalition of lawyers has publicly argued, in press commentary rather than in a filed petition, that extending s.157 — which on its face targets obstruction and parking-type conduct — to cover speeding, phone use and seatbelt offences by regulation exceeds the Minister's statutory authority. That is advocacy, not litigation, and it has not (so far as this note can verify) been tested before a court.

Separately, the automated 'EPS Auto' camera-based variant of the scheme was administratively suspended in mid-2025 over implementation problems. That, too, was an executive decision, not a judicial one, and it does not affect the validity of the manually-issued express penalty notice described in this note.

Honestly: this is one of the thinnest areas of reported Ugandan case law covered by this practice note series. Do not treat the absence of case law as an oversight in this note — it reflects the genuine state of Ugandan jurisprudence on the EPS specifically as at the date of writing.

8. Consequences of getting it wrong

For the driver, the practical consequences of mishandling an express penalty notice are financial and administrative rather than immediately criminal: missing the 72-hour window adds a 50% surcharge, and continued non-payment can block licence renewal and, for a foreign licence-holder, exit from the country. Because the underlying offence remains an offence under the Act even after an unpaid express penalty notice, the driver who ignores the notice altogether risks the matter eventually being escalated to prosecution in the ordinary way — with the exposure that goes with a conviction for the underlying offence, not merely the express penalty amount.

For an advocate, the professional risk lies in over-claiming what the scheme does. Telling a client that paying an express penalty is legally indistinguishable from a full acquittal, or that a serious charge can be resolved by an express penalty notice, is both wrong and potentially damaging if the client relies on that advice in a later proceeding (for example, a subsequent driving-related civil claim or an employer's fitness-to-drive inquiry).

9. Practical guidance and drafting tips

Check the schedule, not the notice's own figure

Before advising a client to pay, confirm the offence actually appears on the Second Schedule of the current 2024 Regulations — not the 2013 predecessor. A client handed an old-form notice, or quoted an old figure, should have the current schedule checked before paying.

Disputing the offence has a real cost

If a client wants to dispute the underlying facts (for example, disputing the speed reading), advise them plainly: declining to pay converts the matter into an ordinary prosecution they must be prepared to defend. The EPS is not a threat to be used tactically — it is a genuine choice between a fixed, known cost and the uncertainty (and higher cost) of contesting the offence in court.

Document the payment

Keep proof of payment — receipt, transaction reference, or confirmation through the licensing system. If a licence renewal is later blocked in error over a penalty that was in fact paid, that proof is the client's first line of defence in resolving the administrative block.

10. Common pitfalls

Treating an express penalty as a full acquittal or a formal court conviction — it is neither; it discharges liability to conviction for that offence only.
Ignoring the notice and assuming nothing further happens — the 50% surcharge is automatic after 72 hours, and the licensing system can block renewal.
Relying on the 2013 scheme's figures or procedure — the 2024 Regulations replaced it entirely.
Assuming a serious offence (causing death by reckless or dangerous driving, for example) can be settled by an express penalty — it cannot; such offences go straight to court.
Citing the 2024 SI's own misprinted 'Cap. 347' as an alternate valid chapter number for the parent Act — it is a drafting error; the Act is Cap. 361.

11. Grey areas and points to confirm

This is a note where honesty about the limits of the available material matters more than usual. First, no verifiable filed court case on the Express Penalty Scheme — under either the 2013 or 2024 Regulations — could be located; the two cases held in reserve for this cluster (Bwiriza v Osapil on vehicle ownership disputes, and Fred Jingo v Uganda on licence cancellation under the 1970 predecessor Act) do not concern the EPS and are not used in this note for that reason — do not force them in. Second, whether an earlier, purely administrative EPS regime operated around 2004 is mentioned in some background material but could not be confirmed against an operative legal instrument — treat it as unverified history, not a legal fact. Third, the schedule of offences and penalties is revised periodically by the Minister under s.166 — the figures set out above are current as verified against the 2024 Regulations' Second Schedule but should be re-checked before quoting them in advice. Fourth, and cluster-wide: the 7th Revised Edition of the Principal Laws took effect 1 July 2024 and reassigned chapter numbers across fourteen volumes; whether Cap. 361 survived unchanged has not been independently confirmed for this note.

12. Practitioner checklist

Confirm the offence is on the Second Schedule of the 2024 (not 2013) Regulations.
Read the notice for the exact offence cited and the penalty amount.
Confirm the current currency-point figure for that offence before advising on the amount payable.
Pay within 72 hours if the client accepts the offence, to avoid the 50% surcharge.
If disputing the offence, advise the client plainly that the matter proceeds to ordinary prosecution.
Keep and file proof of payment against any future licence-renewal dispute.

13. Sources and further verification

Every statutory reference in this note is verified against the Traffic and Road Safety Act, Cap. 361 and the Traffic and Road Safety (Express Penalty Scheme for Road Traffic Offenders) Regulations, 2024 (S.I. 56 of 2024), as consolidated at 31 December 2023 (the Regulations themselves post-date that consolidation and were verified from the gazetted text of 19 July 2024). No case law is cited in this note because none squarely on point was found — see the grey-areas section above.

Traffic and Road Safety Act, Cap. 361 — ss.107, 108, 157, 166.
Traffic and Road Safety (Express Penalty Scheme for Road Traffic Offenders) Regulations, 2024 (S.I. 56 of 2024) — Regs. 2, 3, 7, 8; Second and Third Schedules.
Traffic and Road Safety (Mobile Phone) Regulations, S.I. 99 of 2004 — regs 3, 5.
Traffic and Road Safety (Seatbelt) Regulations, S.I. 32 of 2004 — reg 3(3).

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Last updated: 6 July 2026.
Next currentness review: 17 August 2027.
This note is a practitioner orientation, not legal advice, and does not create an advocate–client relationship. Ugandan law changes and chapter and section numbers were revised in the 2023 Laws of Uganda. Verify every statute, rule and authority against the current primary source — and the specific facts of your matter — before filing or relying on it.