Police encounters in Uganda

Hey there,

Recently I had a chat with my mum about corruption and I started telling her these stories from Uganda which were, at the time, funny but now that I think of it, also horrible. And she encouraged me to share so I have spent some time thinking about the corruption in Uganda and how it damages the public systems so deeply.

Due to my work, I spent a lot of time on the roads in Uganda but I was mostly driven by professionals. We did get stopped by the police plenty and unnecessarily but thanks to our strict law-abiding driving and an NGO vehicle, nothing ever happened.

There are these small villages all around the highways in the countryside which are often called market places. Normally the highway speed limit is 80 but through these, you must slow down to 60. So the first time I got behind the wheel myself, we were driving through one of these and the village had ended ages since so I started exhilarating and then got stopped for speeding. Which in my view was me driving 84 on 80 but for them it was 84 on 60 zone. But they actually had all the cameras and already six people there arguing their ticket.

We stopped and tried to get the issue sorted fast since we were actually running a little late because of delays in our car rental and the gates to the national park were closing. The police officers originally just ignored me and I was standing there watching all these local men having a fight with the police. Then I was finally asked to identify my car from the images and asked if ''I'm denying the charges''. I just kept asking for the ticket so we could move on. Eventually, I had to interrupt one of these fights to tell the officer just to write the fine. The situation did get funny since Finnish divers' licences don't have a numbering system but a bar code and the car wasn't our either nor through a real rental service. Eventually, I got a fine for 50 USD where half of the information just said 'Finland' and left behind a very confused looking officer who continued his battle with the others.

I wanted to find out whether I should even bother to pay the fine so I asked about the practice from the professional drivers we have at work. Apparently, fines are personal and cannot be held against the owner of the car so I decided not to pay it at all. I was told that the police usually stops muzungus (outsiders) in hopes to scare us into paying them but they actually don't have anything to hold against you and in this case, without my drivers' licence number there's nothing they can input into the system.

The craziest road trip was definitely down to lake Bunyooni where we got stopped at least five times. Now I can also say with authority that men are more likely to get stopped. Here are some of my favourites. We had rented this cute little car where the speedometer didn't work and it just about pushed us up hills but otherwise was fabulous. The only time we got stopped when I was behind the wheel was on our way to the lake and the officer just kept asking us questions about where we come from and where we are going, if we love Uganda and how did we find the lake (which we hadn't yet been to). After he discovered our chat fruitless, he just let us go.

Later we exchanged drivers and were pushing a walking speed up this hill and got stopped by this female officer who looked like Christmas had come early. They didn't have equipment with them and looked like they were just having lunch by the road. She came to my window and said that she must fine us for speeding. Smelling a rat and knowing that it was impossible for our little steed to speed in uphills, I asked her to show me some proof. She got really angry and said that if we had just been respectful and apologised for the speeding, she would have let us off so my friend apologised from the driver's seat and she let us off.

This is cassava root which you can buy fried or roasted by the roadsides and was my go-to car snack.

On our way back, my friend got stopped again (twice actually). This time, we were flicking different lights on and off and talking about our route for a good ten minutes before the dude got the memo and just let us go. I must really applaud their persistence and no one actually directly asked us to bribe them though their intentions were very clear.

The only time we were actually asked directly was during my last trip to Jinja! After all these previous incidents, I thought I was ready but I was utterly shocked. We were pulled over (my female friend was driving) and the officer didn't even try anything with the speed or lights but directly started chatting about Jinja and then saying that they must patrol there all they and must buy water so they need money for it. My friend was on top of the situation so beautifully and offered him an old water bottle from the car. He kept going so she found this old, opened bag of g-nuts (ground/peanuts in Uganda) and gave it to him and then just drove off.

I've also once seen the presidents convoy on the road during our work trip. The whole traffic was stopped and cars pushed off the roads so that he could pass at full speed with a twenty vehicle entourage. All the MPs and other government officials have special licence plates that allow them to rush through traffic like ambulances. Expect in Uganda, the ambulance rarely is allowed to pass.

Traffic, the awful condition of the roads and the cars are a massive reason for grief in Uganda and it is horrible to witness how many people get hurt. I ended up in a few near-enough accidents on both motorbike and car. Lessons to be learned from this: try not to get into an accident in Uganda because you are more likely to see an MP than an ER, always have a small bribe (not money) ready in the car, keep calm and stand your ground without being aggressive and lastly, select your uber and Boda (motorbike) drivers with care. I could write a whole new blog about incidents I have had with awful drivers (one was high and another told me he would stick a baby in me so he could have a white child, for example).

Thanks for reading and hopefully this was enlightening!

Mira