Every day, for the past 6 months or so, I walk about 200m
from my home in Makindye to the proverbial stage where I look out for Mukiga,
Asporo or Kawoya. The 3 are what you would call my Transport consultants. Mukiga is the fast one, Asporo is the slow
cautious one and Kawoya is the reliable one. Either one of these expert
transporters takes me to work, to church, to the shopping center and will
sometimes do a round trip with me as or when I have a number of errands to
accomplish in a short time.
I will describe the most frequent trip that I make from
Makindye to the Urban TV studios in Industrial Area, a journey of about 5km.
The journey starts in Makindye not far from the Military barracks, through Nsambya,
Mukwano Road, the Jinja Road roundabout, all the way to First Street,
Industrial Area.
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| My daily trek to work |
In the 10-15 minutes that this trip usually takes, we
will encounter other road users that have a vengeance against my kind of
transporters, we will look for the narrowest of gaps to beat the traffic jam, my
transporters will fidget to retrieve the helmet from the horns when we approach
the traffic lights where Police is deployed, there is the thrilling but mad
dash by my kind of transporters when the green light sets them free and every
once in a while we will pass by the scene of an accident where one of our own
has perished or killed their passenger in the process of maneuvering a corner,
a car or a traffic officer.
Every time we arrive safely at the New Vision headquarters,
I say a silent thanksgiving prayer and ask myself why I take this suicide
mission every day.
I call it a suicide mission because of the stories I hear
and witness on the road and in the Urban TV Newsroom. Stories of a ward in
Mulago Hospital dedicated to my kind of transporters, scenes of blood and
lifeless bodies, near death experiences where I've cursed and vowed to switch
transporters,…
But for reasons that I cannot understand or explain, I am
still an ardent user of the BODA BODA.
I have wondered often and I still wonder; Why do I
continue to take this daily Suicide Mission?
When I weigh convenience, control and speed as advantages
of using Boda bodas against the obvious drawbacks of high cost of living (up to
300,000 per month), laziness fueled by the speed with which the Boda can
deliver me to work and the road safety concerns that the Injury Control Centre,
Uganda puts at 5 to 20 boda boda accident cases per day (7,280 cases in year)
at Mulago Hospital.
It’s a suicide mission that I have taken so many times
that I sometimes close my eyes and meditate all the way from Makindye to the New Vision HQs when riding with the reliable
Kawoya.
Note: I am not suicidal, am I?
