Passenger Service Vans are referred to as taxis in Uganda. our neighbors in Kenya call them matatus and they were redesigned into fourteen seaters, the back with four chairs each carrying three passengers and the other two Sit at the front with the driver. A taxi must have a conductor and his job is to attract customers to his taxi, help them carry their luggage and at times children, open and shut the door, collect fares, he must be a multi tasker with a loud voice and able to rap easily and call customers to his taxi.
Now a typical Kampala person who intends to use a taxi must know some of the following words since Luganda is a widely spoken Bantu language in Uganda, “maaso awo” (in front there), “kyambuka awo” (at the hill), “funa parking” (find parking), “ku stage” (at the stage), “njikoye” (am tired of it), among others. Knowledge of these words will help you communicate with the conductor when you want to disembark.
A taxi is one place you get to mix and mingle with people from all walks of life. a 15minute ride can become the longest a person can endure or the shortest and more interesting and the person you sit next to in the taxi will determine this.
There is always that loud mouthed person in a taxi who speaks for all to hear and insists on engaging the whole taxi in their conversation and If you are seated next to this character, he may tap you from time to time to ensure that you are paying attention. Then there is the one who speaks so loudly on phone, talking about containers, tax clearance, dollars in the bank.
If you have ever boarded a late-night taxi, 90% of the passengers will be drunk and chances are the driver too is intoxicated. The late- night taxi is a continuation of the bar, people here are either changing location from one bar to another or heading home. There will always be that young couple who can’t keep their hands off each other, shamelessly engaging in romance, then the couple who are engaged in a fight, the loud- mouthed drunk giving a slurred speech, the blacked out drunk drooling with saliva running down his mouth.
The man who is always hunting, immediately launches his manifesto on the next beautiful girl and makes sure he leaves with her number.
The girl with a cheap China phone and ear phones singing loudly but off tune to some RnB song playing off an FM station. She is most likely chewing gum with an open mouth.
The thieving taxi conductor who always has less change hoping that you will leave it for him.
Such are the tales of the Kampala taxis, I advice anyone hoping to carry out a research on Kampala to simply take a taxi and get a feel of the heartbeat of Kampala.
