Drunken bosses, sober drivers

Now is the time to thank our traffic police department for the wonderful job they’re doing night and day for this country. Ever since traffic police introduced the breathalyzer, many drivers are being netted & fined. To some drivers this was a huge oppression and to others a blessing in disguise. A good number of drivers in this country are out of work but they are not seated, there’s a new arrangement in town. If you go to some hotels, bars and hangouts you find smart young men waiting to be hired to drive bosses around or back home when they are drunk. A boss (as they like to call them) comes and drinks all tribes and quantity of drinks he wants without the fear of driving while drunk especially now that traffic officers are stricter than ever before. These night drivers come late in the evening sober as judges armed with their phones and driving permits. When a boss sits and starts to drink, they politely approach him and introduce themselves and let them know if they are needed they’re just a beep away, unlike the special hire drivers, these guys don’t have cars, you pay them to drive you in your car when you’re drunk or forgot your drivers-license or you want to take your hands off the steering wheel for a change, They are hired per night or day he takes you home you pay him and that’s that, if you need more of his services you give him a call! Kayiranga one of the regular patrons had this to say, “You see”, he started, “after a day’s work, one needs to unwind and irrigate the throat, but of late traffic police are so strict on drunk drivers, even if you just look at a beer bottle those guys can tell.” “You can’t beat the .08% legal limit,” he joked, but otherwise he was full of praise. “These young men are surely a blessing from above, being that most of them are jobless; they value the opportunity at hand and use it with calculated care, respect and wholeheartedly. They are always there when you need them; their prices are not so high compared to what they do. They are life and money savers! I hire them every night.” We asked Jean Claude, one of the night drivers, how they came up with this idea. “Well, no one knows exactly how it started but everyone knows necessity is the mother of everything. Most of us worked so hard to get driving permits, after getting it you sit with it for ages. But when the breathalyzer came into the picture, bosses often go out drink and forget they have to bump into traffic police officers on their way home. There in the middle of the night they would get stuck with the cars and no drivers. Then they would call their friends asking them to ‘lend’ them their drivers,” he said, adding, “When the driver is not available he then gives the telephone number of another jobless driver who would charge some fee.” ”Most of these night bosses are very generous and understanding. You can agree that he’s going to pay you ten thousand to drive him, let’s say from kacyiru to Kanombe when you drop him there and he tips you five thousand. If you get like two customers then you call it a night!”Mike a night driver added. But not all people in night transport business are happy about this new arrangement. Rusagara, a special hire driver has no kind words for these guys. “Before, many people used to leave their cars at home for fear of driving at night while drunk, so after a drinking spree, they’d hire us to drive them around sometimes till dawn. One would make some good money but now no one fears to go out with his car, they know they’ll find free-lancer drivers at every happening joint around town anytime, a thing that is affecting us terribly!” Well, while Rusagara might not be pleased, the bosses sure are. Traffic police, big-ups. Ends