There are moments in a nation’s history when a single achievement shakes the old mindset, whispers to our self-doubt, and asks us the uncomfortable question: why do we love to hate what belongs to us? Kiira Motors and its extraordinary journey offer us that moment of reflection.
I found myself thinking deeply about this when the Kiira EV successfully started an expedition from Uganda to South Africa. A journey that many thought was impossible. A journey that silenced critics who spent years calling the project a waste of time. A journey that vindicated the dream that was born by Makerere University and launched by President Yoweri Museveni in November 2011. A journey that should inspire every Ugandan to say, with conviction, that we can build, innovate, and produce like any great nation.
Kiira Motors is a vision of what Uganda can become if we embrace science and innovation. It is an opportunity for thousands of our young people who graduate every year with engineering degrees but struggle to find spaces that allow them to build, create, and dream. It is a platform for employment, industrial growth, green mobility, and national pride.
So why do some Ugandans choose to ridicule instead of support? What makes us quick to celebrate foreign brands even when our own have achieved what no African country had done before when Kiira EV became Africa’s first electric car? It is time to confront this attitude. If we want growth, if we want innovation, if we want jobs for our children, then we must change the way we talk about our country.
Kiira Motors represents a strategic step toward economic independence. Every year, Uganda spends billions importing vehicles, spare parts, and fuel for old technology cars. A domestic automotive industry means less money bleeding out of the economy. It means more factories, more value addition, more investors, and more skilled jobs. It also means stronger backwards and forward linkages in steel, textiles, leather, energy, and oil refining. These opportunities will not come from anywhere else. They will come from us supporting our own.
The National E-Mobility Expo 2025, officiated by Hon. Monica Musenero, reminded us that Kiira Motors is no longer a concept. It is a living, breathing, producing industry. It is manufacturing buses that institutions like Uganda Civil Aviation Authority and Makerere University are already using. It is training young engineers through partnerships with UNDP and Makerere University. It is setting the stage for e-mobility in a country where air pollution and chaotic transport urgently require change.
Kiira Motors is also opening the gates of possibility for environmental transformation. Electric buses reduce air pollution and help modernise urban transport. Hybrid cars and e-mobility systems align Uganda with the global green revolution. Kampala will not become a modern city by importing old cars from Europe. It will become modern through technology we build ourselves.
The challenge now is simple. Ugandans must choose to either continue doubting their country or join the movement of believers who see Kiira Motors as a national treasure worth defending and supporting. Every comment we make online, every conversation we have about this project, every space where we stand up to cynicism contributes to building or destroying our national confidence.
If South Africa can support its automotive giants, if Japan can trust its local engineers, if South Korea can rise from poverty to global domination through technology, then Uganda can also believe in its own. Kiira Motors is not perfect. No innovation ever is. But it is ours. It is built by our engineers. It is powered by our institutions. It is a symbol of who we can become.
Let us support it. Let us promote it. Let us choose national pride instead of national cynicism. Uganda will not be built by those who sit on the sidelines waiting for perfection. It will be built by those who stand up and say, this is ours, and we will make it succeed. The future is electric. The future is green. The future is Ugandan. And Kiira Motors is leading the way.