A physical inspection of the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway tolling system has thrown Uganda’s revenue collection controls into fresh controversy after legislators discovered that toll barriers can be opened manually despite assurances that the system is automated.
Members of Parliament on the Committee on Physical Infrastructure were left stunned when they conducted a practical test at one of the toll stations and found that an electronic toll card did not automatically trigger the barrier.
Instead, a toll operator had to intervene manually and open the barrier for the vehicle to pass.
The discovery has raised serious questions about the reliability of the toll collection system operated by EGIS Road Operation and whether the manual intervention creates loopholes through which government revenue can potentially be lost.
The revelation is particularly sensitive because it comes days after Parliament began probing thousands of vehicles that auditors say could not be reconciled with toll collection records.
The committee, chaired by Hon. Mwine Mpaka, has been examining the management of the expressway following concerns contained in the Auditor General’s report for the financial year 2024/25. Parliament says the audit raised questions over the integrity, reliability and security of the electronic toll collection system.
A Sh5,000 card clears a Sh15,000 bus
The most striking moment during the committee’s inspection came when MPs tested the system using an electronic toll card.
A card issued for a saloon car, whose applicable toll is Sh5,000, was presented for a bus that should ordinarily attract a Sh15,000 toll charge.
Instead of the system automatically identifying the larger vehicle and charging the appropriate fee, the toll operator manually opened the barrier.
The practical demonstration immediately raised questions among legislators about what happens when the electronic system is bypassed and a human operator is left with the discretion to allow a vehicle through.
The concern is not simply about the Sh10,000 difference in the particular demonstration.
It goes to the heart of the controls surrounding a major public revenue stream: who records the vehicle, who determines the applicable toll, who authorises the manual opening and how is the transaction subsequently reconciled with government records?
If a vehicle can pass after an operator manually lifts the barrier, MPs want to know what safeguards prevent the transaction from being under-recorded, misclassified or completely omitted from the revenue system.
The committee’s concerns are particularly significant because official tolling arrangements were designed around electronic cards and automated processing.
According to the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway’s official toll information, motorists using electronic cards are supposed to tap their cards on a reader, after which the appropriate toll is deducted before the toll boom opens.
The system provides different charges according to vehicle class, ranging from Sh5,000 for light vehicles to Sh15,000 for large goods vehicles and buses with four to five axles, and Sh18,000 for vehicles with six or more axles.
The discovery therefore raises an uncomfortable question: if the system is designed to automatically process the appropriate charge, why does an operator have the ability to manually open the barrier in circumstances where the card and vehicle category do not correspond?
From “electronic” system to human discretion
The latest discovery is likely to intensify scrutiny of EGIS, which was contracted to operate and maintain the expressway and collect tolls on behalf of government.
The Ministry of Works and Transport says the 26.2-kilometre section under the tolling arrangement was handed over to EGIS Road Operation on May 24, 2021. The company was tasked with operating and maintaining the road and managing tolling operations.
Tolling officially began on January 8, 2022, at Busega, Kajjansi and Mpala toll plazas.
At the time, the introduction of electronic cards was presented as a way of making toll payments easier and improving the efficiency of collections.
The official expressway system describes the electronic card as a “tap and go” mechanism, with the card reader expected to deduct the applicable toll fee.
But EGIS’s own description of its responsibilities is broader. The operator’s mandate includes toll collection, supervision, administration and control, covering manual, automatic and electronic tolling.
That distinction could become central to Parliament’s inquiry.
The issue before MPs is not necessarily whether manual intervention can ever occur. Technical failures, equipment breakdowns or exceptional circumstances can require human intervention.
The bigger question is what controls exist around such intervention.
If an operator manually opens a barrier, does the system automatically create an audit trail?
Does it record the vehicle’s registration number?
Does it capture the vehicle category?
Does it record the amount that should have been collected?
Does it reconcile the manual passage with the actual payment?
And, crucially, can management independently verify that every vehicle allowed through manually was subsequently accounted for?
These are the questions MPs are now demanding answers to.
The 10,446-vehicle problem
The manual toll revelation comes against the backdrop of an even larger problem already before Parliament.
An internal audit reportedly found that 10,446 vehicles could not be reconciled in the expressway’s toll records.
According to findings presented to Parliament, 586 vehicles were unaccounted for in November 2024, with an estimated revenue shortfall of about Sh407 million.
The number rose to 2,860 vehicles in December 2025 and then surged to more than 7,000 vehicles in May 2026, with suspected revenue losses exceeding Sh1 billion.
For legislators, the figures have transformed what might otherwise have been a technical dispute into a potentially serious public accountability issue.
The question is no longer simply whether the electronic system occasionally malfunctions.
It is whether the entire chain—from vehicle detection and classification to payment, barrier opening, recording and reconciliation—is sufficiently secure to guarantee that government receives every shilling it is entitled to.
Sh122 billion spent to collect Sh129 billion
The concerns are compounded by the cost of running the toll operation.
Parliament has already questioned figures showing that government spent about Sh122 billion on toll collection while collecting approximately Sh129 billion in toll revenue, prompting MPs to demand an explanation of whether the arrangement offers value for money.
That leaves an extraordinarily narrow gap between the cost of collecting the revenue and the revenue itself.
The committee has consequently questioned the continued use of private operators and raised the possibility of transferring toll collection responsibilities to the Uganda Revenue Authority.
MPs have also questioned the extension of EGIS’s contract and the amount of money being consumed by operation and maintenance compared with what ultimately reaches government.
The latest discovery could add another layer to that debate.
If government is spending billions of shillings to operate a tolling system that is supposed to safeguard public revenue, MPs are likely to demand evidence that the system can independently account for every vehicle passing through the toll gates.
A road built on borrowed money
The stakes are high because the expressway itself was built with borrowed money.
Government records put the original contract value of the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway at about US$476 million, with the project financed largely by China’s Exim Bank alongside Ugandan government funding. The project was intended to provide a faster transport connection between Kampala and Entebbe and help decongest the existing road network.
Tolling was subsequently introduced partly to generate funds for road maintenance and contribute towards financial obligations associated with the infrastructure.
When tolling began in 2022, motorists were placed into different payment categories, with light vehicles paying Sh5,000 and larger vehicles paying progressively higher rates.
In its first year, EGIS reported collecting approximately Sh34 billion from the expressway after about 7.3 million motorists used the road.
By December 2023, the expressway’s official platform reported that EGIS had collected Sh75 billion on behalf of UNRA since tolling began, saying the revenue was passed to the UNRA account.
Those figures illustrate the enormous financial significance of the tolling system.
Even seemingly small discrepancies can become substantial when multiplied across thousands of vehicles and hundreds of operating days.
MPs now want answers
The committee’s practical test has therefore placed the spotlight squarely on the mechanics of toll collection.
The MPs are particularly interested in the possibility that manual intervention could undermine the automatic classification and charging of vehicles.
A bus that should pay Sh15,000 but is cleared using a Sh5,000 saloon-car card creates a Sh10,000 discrepancy on a single transaction.
On its own, that may appear insignificant.
But if similar discrepancies occurred repeatedly—and if they were not automatically captured and reconciled—the cumulative effect could become significant.
Importantly, the MPs’ discovery does not by itself establish that revenue has been stolen or that EGIS staff deliberately facilitated leakage.
It does, however, expose a control weakness that Parliament is entitled to investigate.
The key issue is whether every manual intervention is recorded, independently reviewed and reconciled.
That question has become even more urgent following the audit findings on thousands of vehicles that could not be matched to toll records.
The committee is now expected to scrutinise the technology, contractual obligations, revenue reconciliation procedures, audit trails and the circumstances under which toll operators are authorised to manually open barriers.
The Parliament inquiry comes at a time when lawmakers are already demanding greater accountability from the Ministry of Works and Transport over the expressway’s financial performance.
New Vision reported that the committee had summoned Works and Transport Minister Fred Byamukama, ministry officials, EGIS representatives and contractor Pinnacle as part of its investigation. Committee chair Mwine Mpaka has indicated that the probe is being pursued urgently, with a report expected shortly.
For a road built to modernise Uganda’s transport infrastructure, the emerging tolling controversy presents an uncomfortable paradox: a highway equipped with electronic payment technology may still depend on the human hand to decide whether the barrier opens.
And now Parliament wants to know what happens to the money when that hand takes control.
