They are a unique rare breed of their own kind. That is because of the tough grueling but risky trade they chose to practice – cross border smuggling. A rare breed that can only be found in the Kenya – Uganda border towns of Busia and Malaba.
They brave the scorching sweltering heat, blinding dust, heavy rains and murky muddy rutted panya routes of the border towns every day to carry on their trade. They are also a unique rare breed because they are all physically disabled men and women – particularly their feet but with heavy powerful arms to propel their vehicles.
They are tough, seasoned, hardy and highly experienced in their grueling trade. In Kenya’s towns right from Nairobi all the way to Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu and many others many people with physical disabilities can hardly be associated with such a tough trade.
However those of Busia and Malaba towns have defied the stereotyping that disability is inability but to prove beyond reasonable doubt the reverse that disability is not inability by doing what many able bodied people are not able to execute with the relentless precision with which they do their trade.
At the crack of dawn they powerfully race their specially designed heavy duty wheel chairs to the cargo collection points. These are shops and wholesale outlets strategically located in Kenya close to the Kenya – Uganda border in Busia and Malaba towns ready for the day’s grueling business.
They troop to these outlets in swarms like ants all day long braving all kinds of elements of nature like disciplined troops they park their heavy duty wheel chairs in orderly lines ready to be loaded with all kinds of cargo before embarking on transporting it across the border to Uganda either for local trade or onward transit.
In Uganda they wheel their cargo transporters to drop off points owned wealthy traders located more than a kilometer from the common border into the interior scattered in various locations. Most are found near the Busia and Malaba Uganda bus parks where the cargo is loaded on lorries, matatus, pick-ups and all manner of transport vehicles for onward transport to destinations in various towns in that country.
These are the un-sang cross-border smuggling kings and queens of Busia and Malaba border towns. They rarely use the main official border entry and exit points of these two countries, but dominate the labyrinthine panya routes in the border towns that are the super highways of smuggling all kinds of goods either from Uganda to Kenya or vice versa.
The wheel chairs used in transporting the cargo by these “traders” are specially designed with strong heavy duty metal bars that are usually re-enforced. A special re-enforced boot to carry the cargo is built under the chairs for those riding them, though all use the standard bicycle wheels one at the fore and two at the rare – propelled by the hands of the owners.
They are all jua kali made perhaps specifically designed to carry heavy cargo over long distances by the physically disabled. The cargo is usually loaded into these wheel chair bicycles from the rear to the full. The boots are capable of loading up to four 50kg bags of cement at full capacity. They are locally popularly known as “magali” (plural) or “egali” (single) which simply translates into vehicle(s).
The use ordinary bicycles in cross border smuggling has come and gone right from the 1970s during the coffee smuggling boom from Uganda through the 1980s and 1990s when sugar and cement smuggling from Kenya to Uganda among other commodities were at their peak now currently mostly replaced by motorbikes and probox saloon cars.
These wheel chairs have survived those years and are still going strong despite the challenges the traders experience in their trade. They almost exclusively transport or smuggle into Uganda manufactured products from Kenya which are still not readily available on the Ugandan markets.
Some of the most popular commodities being ferried include, salt, wheat flour, cement, soap, cooking oils and fats, lubricants,
According to investigations conducted by the People Daily these wheel chair riders are mostly used as transporters of these products to feed the hungry markets in the interior of Uganda by the real deals are usually sealed by big time businessmen on either side of the border.
The Chairman Uganda Disabled Transporters Association Joel Nsubuga said: “Our members work for many different bosses either in Busia or Malaba Uganda. They pay for the cargo to their business colleagues in Kenya then we ferry it in our magali to various destinations in both towns.”
Nsubuga says that apart from that there are others who simply arm themselves with their own cash, go to the Kenyan outlets, purchase the cargo and transport it across the border to various points where it is then transported to other destinations in various parts of that country.
“Most of these cargo goes to mostly rural town towns in Uganda like Tororo, Mbale, Soroti, Bugiri, Majanji among others because the cargo which is brought in by big dealers in Kampala and Jinja have their cargo going to those towns directly and it does not trickle back down to the rural towns especially those near Kenya,” he said.
Interestingly most of these “traders” are not young men and women but grown up men and women who are in their late thirties to early fifties and have been in the trade for years. They chose it mostly in preference of going out to ask for alms from members of the public.
“I am a mother of five children but a widow and I could not sit down and feel helpless simply because I am physically disabled and my children are there to feed, clothe and educate including myself,” says Mrs. Beatrice Mayanja of Malaba.
Just like many of her colleagues who talked to the People Daily through the smuggling trade, Mrs. Mayanja has been able to educate two of her children to university while others are still in Senior Secondary School.
Per every trip the “traders” make an average of about Kshs. 50 to Kshs. 100 depending on the weight and value of the cargo as well as the distance involved to reach its destination or drop off points, but can also be much lower than that still depending on the above.
