My recent long-awaited marathon bus ride from Nairobi to Jinja, in Uganda, was more than I had bargained for.
The scenic and relaxed 578 Kilometer trip had been delayed for over six months because of the strict and expensive Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, protocols, expensive inoculations and tests on both sides of the sister countries, which are members of the East African Cooperation (EAC), its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. In addition to the bus fare of Ksh. 2,500 one way, on was forced to pay an additional Ksh. 2,500 for Covid-19 testing as they entered and another one on the way out of the Pearl of Africa. But thanks to my timing, I did not have to pay for the testing as I had a certificate to show that I had taken the two vaccines as required by Ministry of Health at Afya House, in Nairobi.
I had deliberately picked on Jinja because of its historical significance remembering what our teachers had taught us in primary and secondary school, and as a leading tourist attraction in the region as the source of River Nile, and the longest in the world at 6,853 Km.
Pearl of Africa
The Nile drainage basin covers eleven countries: Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Kenya and flows from Lake Victoria, the second biggest in the world after Great Lakes in the United States of America, which covers Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.
From it's source, 'discovered' by first European explorer, John Hannington Speke, in the 1880s, in the Jewel of Africa, as Uganda was then known, River Nile starts it's marathon journey North to the Mediterranean Sea, which divides Africa from Europe, and its width widens along the way from 2.8Km to 7.5Km. in Egypt.
The Nile, which is derived from the Greek word Neilos which probably originated from the Semitic root, nahal, meaning valley or river; it flows through Central and Northern Uganda to Alexandria, in Egypt, through Juba, in South Sudan, and Cairo, in Egypt, and receives more water from two tributaries, the Blue Nile (the second source of the Nile) the White Nile at Khartoum, from the Ethiopian highlands.
My day bus trip started at dawn at 6.30 AM, when the Guardian Coach Bus driver released the handbrake and stepped on the accelerator after being assured by his colleagues that all his passengers were on board.
Being the end of the midterm holiday for pupils and students, most of the passengers were parents or guardians heading to their respective schools along the highway from Nairobi to Busia town, strategically located at the Kenya-Uganda border.
The ride was relaxed, stress-free and with a breath-taking view of the Great Rift Valley, Delamare Farms, Acacia plantations, Lakes Naivasha, Elementaita and Nakuru before we saw the Mau Forest and mix of small and large scale maize, potatoes, trees, coffee and cane plantations along the busy route used by long distance trailers, tankers and buses to neighbor countries.
Unlike most passengers who opted to drift to slumber land, yours truly kept awake and enjoyed the scenery and took some photos to share on social media later on his WhatsApp and Facebook account on his Destination SafariLogue blog.
The driver was very professional and we had no incident all the way as he made brief health breaks and stopovers in Nakuru, Kericho and Kisumu city.
Face to face with matatu madness
But the second half of the journey from the lakeside city, formerly called Port Florence by the colonialists, started on a bad note, at 1pm. after our replacement driver brushed against a matatu (mini van) whose driver had stopped carelessly to drop and pick passengers at a round about.
The matatu driver quickly apologized and said he had no issues before bolting off saying: "I have no complaint; the scratch on my vehicles is very small!" But our driver demanded that the traffic police visit the scene of the accident; record a statement and l go with him to the Kisumu Central police station and ensure it is captured in the Observation Book (OB), as required under the Traffic Act and Evidence Act.
Meanwhile, the passengers, who were captive audience, became restless and demanded that the driver and police expedite the bureaucracy saying they were looking forward to connecting with other public service vehicles (PSVs) to their various destinations after alighting and did not want to be affected by afternoon showers and/or darkness.
One hour later, thank God, the matter was resolved and our bus was back on the Kisumu-Busia highway with our original driver, as the replacement seemed too traumatized to get back behind the wheels.
For the next two hours, our journey was uneventful as the driver dropped of the students heading to their respectful schools and other passengers. I was one of the last ones to disembark at the border town with another man, who introduced himself as a marketing executive, who was planning to spend a fortnight in Busia to market and sell his wares.
By then I was not only thirsty but starving. I walked to straight to one of the restaurants where I ordered for a cold bottle of juice and an early dinner of boiled meat with pilau (rice stew).
The wifi services there came in handy as I used it to surf and communicate with my family, friends and contacts in Nairobi and Homa Bay Counties in addition to Kampala. I then paid and then picked up my rack sack and luggage and headed to the Kenya-Uganda border for clearance by customs and immigration officials. But there was a hitch: I did not have my Kenyan passport, which had expired in September 2019, at the height of the pandemic when foreign travel was not a priority so I never bothered to renew it.
Another hitch was that the officers wanted to see my Covid-19 vaccination certificate, as required, or else I would have to take one on the spot for Ksh. 2, 500!
Stress-free border crossing
Thanks to one of the 'agents' at the border crossing who assisted and directed me to go to a cyber café where he made photocopies of my Covid-19 certificate and Kenyan national identity card, at a fee.
Armed with the two vital documents, and then returned to the customs, health and immigration officers who stamped them without a hitch and then gave me a nod to proceed and enjoy my Uganda visit.
Meanwhile, money-changers were on hand to assist me convert my Kenya shillings to Ugandan shillings at the ration of 30:1 as a boda-boda taxi (bicycle) operator helped me carry my rack sack and luggage to the UG side where his counterpart on a motorbike took over and led me to the Busia Uganda side as darkness and a heavy shower welcomed me to the Pearl of Africa for my second visit.
My first was 32 years earlier when Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, had just taken over in 1986 as President after overthrowing the previous government of General Tito Okello using his National Resistance Movement (NRM). By then, the clock was ticking towards 8pm., so I decided to look for a low budget guest house where I settled and called it a night. But woe unto me, I hardly slept because of noise pollution coming from the bar next where a stereo system was blaring popular Ugandan dance hall music as the patrons spoke in loud voices and laughed along as others danced along until midnight!
Just when I was starting to enjoy my disturbed sleep, my Ugandan boda-boda guy came knocking at 3.30am. asking me to wake up and ride his bike back to the taxi (matatu) terminus.
I was furious and told him off reminding him that our agreement was that he picks me up at 6.30am. for my trip to Kampala, but with a stop over in Jinja. He complied and returned at 5.45am; I gave in and he dropped me at the taxi terminus where I secured a front seat and enjoyed the two hour ride to Jinja.
But as I was alighting, a police pickup full of armed officers blocked the driver and ordered him to move to the co-drivers seat as they chastised him for ignoring a "polite notice: police. no parking" sign.
Before I knew it, the mean-looking officers in official uniform had whisked him and his conductor, who had not returned my change, away to the police station! The fare was Ugandan Shillings 5,000, but I gave him a note of 10,000).
Meanwhile, I was left in a daze, lonely and tongue tied as I walked to the nearest restaurant for breakfast of black tea and matoke (boiled and fried bananas) that cost me Uganda Shillings 13,500.
The breakdown for that breakfast and lunch later was as follows: Matoke (3,000), Soda (1,000), chapati (500), black tea (1,000), fish (1,000), soda (1,000) and a bottle of water (1,000).
No water in Jinja Cafe!
But I was shocked when I requested to use the washroom to be turned down by the café manager saying: “Sorry, you cannot use our toilets because we have no water! The supplier has not delivered it using a water browser!”
I then moved over to an electronic and camera shop next door where I coughed 100,000 to buy a camera memory card to boost my cellphone camera and asked them for the same service which they obliged.
Thirty minutes later, I was off to 'discover' the source of the Nile by walking to the historic site on the outskirts of the city. But barely one kilometre later, I changed my mind and jumped on to a boda-boda motorbike and was dropped at the entrance at Uganda Shillings 2,000; I parted with another 10,000 as the entrance fee paid and receipted by an official of Jinja Municipal Council, Source of Nile Market.
Once inside, it was a beehive of activities as I brushed shoulders with scores of foreign tourists, school parties, curio dealers and staffers. One of the latter, who is a tour guide, took me around and showed me a commemorative plaque near the shores of River Nile which was unveiled during the Commonwealth Heads of States Meeting (CHOGM) in 2007 during the historic forum in Kampala hosted by President Museveni and attended by Queen Elizabeth II of England.
Stature of Mahatma Gandhi
Another attraction was a stature of Mahatma Gandhi, a world renowned civil rights and liberation hero in India and South Africa, who had written in his will that once he dies, his body be cremated in India and his ashes put in an urn and transported to the site and dropped at the source of the Nile.
From that site, my tour guide took me to the banks of River Nile where he pointed at two islands to the East where water from Lake Victoria flows underground to mix with the Nile in a spring before starting the marathon North-bound journey to the Mediterranean Sea.
On the opposite of the islands, some 2Km away was a newly-built ultra- modern bridge by the Chinese contractors, which resembled The Golden Gate in San Francisco, California, USA, that crosses the mighty river, which is at the border of Buganda and Busoga Kingdoms that are ruled by kings, under the Ugandan constitution, with Museveni as President and Head of State.
I concluded my visit at one of the floating restaurants overlooking the two islands, source of Nile and the Jinja Bridge before leaving to board a taxi (van) and pay 5,000 Ugandan shillings for another two-hour road trip to the Ugandan capital through one of the richest countryside I have ever seen of rice, cassava, banana, tea, trees and sugarcane plantations.
Like in Kenya, we passed through several police checks where uniformed officers waved our driver down along the way and they ‘shook hands’ the African way before being allowed to proceed with the journey.
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