Apart from fetching water from this river, they used it as a toilet where they dropped faeces and urine. They dumped all the domestic wastes in it.

None of them suffered from any water borne diseases like cholera, bilharzias and dysentery. The main diseases they suffered from were coughs, tuberculosis (TB) and all kinds of skin diseases.

The next day, they woke up at six o’clock in the morning. He was feeling dizzy, confused and hungry. He checked his pockets to find out the amount of money he had remained with.

He could not see even one franc. All the money had been stolen by no other people other than his hosts. He asked them and they simply said he was mad. Before they went to look for money, they first chatted for a while.

They asked Gahima if he knew how to shoot with the gun. He told them he had never even seen one. They pulled out two AK-47s, each with a fully loaded magazine. They all laughed at him. Steven, the youngest said he was a real duck.

A ‘duck’ is a word they used to mean a typical villager or an ignorant person. After a fortnight, he was really very good at shooting. They used a gun whenever they could not get money. Often people were rude and unkind to them.

One time, it was Gahima’s turn to command the group. It was their custom to give the commander the gun. Then, the rest would use knives, stones and sticks. This time they planed to carry out their operation in Nyabugogo Taxi Park.

The park was just located less than a kilometre from their house. They targeted people with valuable and highly needed items like stylish mobile phones, necklaces, watches and obviously money.

Ladies were usually their target. They could take any risk as long as they had seen a person carrying what they wanted. They sold sweets, cigarettes in busy and congested places, especially near Forex Bureaus.

They also had a note of USD$100 which they usually went with on queues in the Forex Bureaus as they sighted people who carried big money. Very often they made away with good money.

They spent their money on prostitutes and drugs. Every weekend they would go to nightclubs. In their free time they would watch war and detective films. For three consecutive times, Gahima commanded successfully and friends nicknamed him Major General.

Ends