Wrong Place at the Wrong Time

Another reason to hate Boda Bodas.

Last night at 8:30 my friends and I departed from Kabalagala where we had just finished having dinner. We were running a bit late for a concert we were hoping to see and my two German friends got on one boda and my Congolese friend (Joseph) and I got on another. The concert we were supposed to be attending was in an area called Lugogo which you have to pass through an industrial area to get to.

Driving through the industrial area everything was going swimmingly until I noticed something out of the corner of my eye and Joseph reached over and tapped the driver on the shoulder and told him to stop, as two police officers encroached on us. They walked around the Boda, examining us as they went, there riffles perched over their shoulders, not at the ready but close enough to make you feel uncomfortable. I stood silently and observed. I wasn't sure whether we had committed a traffic violation but I suspected they had not. Joseph suggested I stand a bit farther down on the sidewalk which I did feeling quite uncomfortable in the poorly lit area by the train tracks. First the officers spoke to Joseph, then they spoke to the driver and then we waited. After about 10 minutes a group of women on their way home from factory jobs passed and stopped to talk to me. The interchange was pleasant, they asked if everything was alright I said yes. Then the boda driver flagged another boda driver down there was some sort of interchange and then Joseph asked "and now can we be on our way?" and the police officers grumbled as we got back on the bike.

What had happened was the police had stopped us to request money. When they asked Joseph if he had any money he lied and said he didn't and then they asked the boda driver for 4000 Ugandan shillings and in the end he produced 1000, or approximately 40 cents. I'm not really sure why the police officers never addressed me or asked me for money but I'm glad they didn't.

It's obvious that the situation could have been much worse and of course for the second time this week the character of the police here is brought into question. It is of course possible that these police officers were off-duty or were perhaps not police officers at all, but I hope that I don't meet any more.

Once we got there we discovered that we had missed the concert.