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| Pioneer Easy Buses |
I have not yet used the Jennifer Musisi buses KCCA has promised will ease transport in and around Kampala. I’m anxiously looking forward to their appearance on our streets because I hope they are much better than the taxis. As any Ugandan woman will tell you, using taxis in Uganda can be hell on earth! trying.
Sheila, a banker in Kampala, has a horrifying taxi tale. For people who like the front seats and associate them with comfort, Sheila feels very different about the seat. “I would prefer to take other seats than that one. Maybe like the one behind the driver”, she says. When asked why, Sheila narrates her ordeal, “One day I got onto a taxi, I decided to take the front middle seat. The journey began well until we got the point where instead of engaging gears the driver began to ‘engage’ my thighs, I felt so disgusted. Honestly, I felt like I was being molested. I had to wait for another stop so I could switch to the back seats.” Those at the back did not comprehend the change as they stared at me with curious eyes.
Angela, a regular taxi commuter, says that she has never used a taxi without facing some challenge. One of her most ‘memorable’ experiences could not have come at a worse time. A cousin had invited her to attend a wedding. Unfortunately for Angela, she had a university exam to do that morning. She reasoned, she would, carry her party dress to the exam and dress up after close to the wedding venue. “It therefore meant I had to dress up from campus then jump unto a taxi elegantly dressed and well made up. If I was going to change from campus, that would mean I would have to carry a huge handbag yet I had wanted to go only with a clutch to the party. Of course I also looked ‘funny’ dressed like that in the taxi.” Angela laughs.
Glenda is currently struggling to readapt to using taxis. A car owner for close to three years, Glenda’s car fell prey to car thieves. Glenda shares Angela’s predicament that she can no longer dress as she pleases "In such a hot weather I would wear my any kind of clothes and any type of shoes and drive wherever I wanted but that freedom is no more" laments Glenda. “As matter of fact I’m forced to wear flat shoes more because I do not want to be bothered by high heel shoes while I walk to the taxi park,” she adds.
Of course you do not decide on who becomes your neighbor in the taxi, especially if you did not move with your own friends to fill up the adjoining seats. Because of this, Lucy has developed a stereotype that conductor’s don’t bathe. "I would have no problem using a taxi but the sweaty smelling conductors just put me off. As matter of fact I doubt whether those people really shower, yet they quickly stretch their yellowish mapped armpits on their clients as they come in" says Lucy.
This writer loves children but her own taxi horror story involves kids. Travelling to Kayunga, I had the misfortune to share a seat with a woman with four children she clearly had trouble reining in. The children were so unruly, dirty and noisy, dropping all their cake crumbs and pouring juice on me and one of them constantly tugging at my dress to crown up the whole mess. Yet their sweet loving mother did not expect me to say a word nor did she even apologize for the muddle her children had caused. To me this was cruelty of the highest order. It must have been the longest journey of my life.
May be the buses can do better I just cannot wait!
Email: simieannie@yahoo.com
