Rush hour at Nyabugogo

Someone once questioned the logic behind the phrase ‘rush hour’. He questioned the fact that it’s called a rush yet that’s the hour when traffic seems to be at its slowest! This is usually during the morning hours, when most people are trying to make it to their places of work, and again in the evening when people from work start making the journey back home. In Kigali the scuffles witnessed around the Rubangura area every evening as working class people struggle to get a taxi back home, gives a clearer picture of what a rush hour is all about. On an average evening it is easy to see an able-bodied youth forcefully making his way into a taxi, through the window or an elderly woman aside as the youth fight for the countable taxis. However, in downtown Nyabugogo at the main taxi park, the story is a little different. There is no significant rush for the taxis to justify using the term rush hour. Actually even during the evening hours touts can be seen beckoning people to enter particular taxis. Nyabugogo’s rush hour only comes to life in the wee hours of the morning. It takes place between 5:00am and 6:00am as cross-border travellers struggle to catch the buses headed to Kampala and Nairobi. As the rest of the taxi park remains in sleeping mode, the international section where these buses park becomes bevy of activity. With the massive engines of the now clean buses roaring, energetic young men can be seen struggling to load the buses with all sorts of baggage, as the passengers take their seats after having the conductors verify their tickets. A few meters away, at the various bus offices located on one end the taxi park and across the street for the case of Kampala Coach, some passengers will be rushing to buy the few remaining tickets while others make payments on the bookings they made the day before. In between, several young men keep asking anyone who cares to listen whether they are heading to Kampala or Nairobi. Apparently they are paid by the bus officials for each customer they manage to hook up. The first two buses belonging to Jaguar and Onatracom depart at exactly 5:30am without any delay. These are followed by Kampala Coach at 5:45 and later at 6:00, more buses owned by Jaguar and Onatracom are joined by the new Kenyan owned Starways. Meanwhile two buses that use the Kagitumba border post will have left by this time to go and pick up more passengers from Remera, Kayonza and other towns along the route. The rush largely manifests itself in the way the last passengers to arrive go about trying not to miss the bus they booked before it’s too late. This situation is compounded by the fact that once the bus leaves without you, a refund is often not an option since check in time is always 30 minutes before departure. Some customers often complain that some bus companies are in the habit of departing just a few minutes before the scheduled time in order to resell the already booked seats of those who fail to make it to the bus in time. Several passengers can be seen arriving in a rush often on motorcycles and paying quickly in order to get into the bus. Others are in the habit of making frantic calls to the offices to request the bus not to leave as they are on the way. Those left by the buses often resort to boarding another bus with the hope of finding their bus at the border. This sometimes proves futile especially when by the time the passenger gets to the border the bus is leaving the Ugandan border post. Desperate travellers sometimes have to hire private saloon cars to follow the buses to Gatuna Border. To beat this rush, some passengers sleep in the lodges that are closest to the park. Those who manage to make it before time and are travelling with Kampala Coach will have the luxury of a cup of tea before departure. ssenyonga@gmail.com