It was 7a.m. We had just crossed Namanga, the border point between Kenya and Tanzania, into a flat terrain quite similar to Karamoja. This was Masai land. The smooth and clear road here was a welcome relief from the bumpy and dusty stretch between Nairobi and Namanga.
We had left Kampala 18 hours ago for a distance of about 650kms. We were headed to Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania’s administrative city, where I would take a ferry to Zanzibar. But the bad roads in Kenya would make you hate the whole experience of traveling by road. It is here that you think it is worthwhile paying for a flight than saving about $268 by road.
The cheapest return air ticket from Zanzibar is $418, taxes inclusive. Yet you only need Ushs240,000 for a return bus ticket to Dar-es-salaam and about Ushs60,000 return ferry ticket to Zanzibar from Dar-es-salaam.
I chose to go by road and travelled with Kampala Coach. I have always looked forward to a Ugandan bus company taking on Akamba and the luxurious Kampala coaches are perfect for Ugandans.
On a Tuesday afternoon, check in time was 12.30p.m. We boarded the bus, which was parked at Dewinton Road just next to Akamba Coach. There were a few passengers but the bus had to depart at 1p.m. My seat was just behind the driver’s seat.
On the other side was a female traveler who could pass for a Kikubo businesswoman. She was joined by a female colleague with whom they jazzed in Luganda. The two seemed like regular passengers; they freely interacted with the bus staff to the extent that one of the conductors was free to hold their waists and they responded with smiles.
The two, I later learnt, deal in shoe soles, which they buy in Dar-es-salaam. With few passengers on board, we had plenty of room in bus. I thought we would pick more passengers along the way but we only stopped at the Busia border.
Along the way, passengers wave the bus down but the driver never stops. The policy is strictly office to office stops. Kampala Coach has another office in Jinja but it seems there were no passengers because our first stopover for passengers was at Kisumu where the bus got a sizeable number of passengers destined for Nairobi and Dar-es-salaam.
It was coming to 8p.m and it was dark. The bad roads in Kenya get you to appreciate the work done by Minister John Nasasira on our highways.
It is only three hours from Kampala to Busia but the shorter distance from Busia to Kisumu takes close to four hours as the bus swings from side to side to avoid gullies.
And there are no signs they will be fixed soon! What happened to the East African Community arrangement that required every country to works on its roads that connect the region? The last time I traveled on this route to Nairobi, it was a rough ride to Nairobi. Three years down the road, it is the same story.
As we approached Nairobi at 2a.m. At some points, police tried to stop us but the driver never stopped. The good thing he was Kenyan. He knew the police he was dealing with, but I imagined if he were Ugandan!
At the Nairobi offices on Duruma Road, we were served tea and bread. Here, I met Hajji Gulam who was headed for burial in Moshi.
It is from the 70-year-old, a frequent traveler on this route that I learnt that Kampala Coach is the former Mawingo Bus, just re-branded. The bus company has its headquarters in Eldoret and is owned by A.O. Bayusuf and Sons Ltd who own a fleet of trucks.
This wasn’t good news for a man who had been feeling Ugandan. The only consolation was that it carried the Kampala flag high across the region. More passengers boarded in Nairobi and we got a new driver. By 5.30a.m., we were at Namanga, the border between Kenya and Tanzania.
It is over 750km from Namanga to Dar-es-Salaam but you spend less than nine hours on the road. The roads here are smooth apart a small stretch before Arusha which is under reconstruction.
It is on Tanzania’s smooth roads that you finally enjoy the comfort of the bus. There is a flat screen on board with music videos from across the region. This coupled with the spectacular view of Mt Kilimanjaro at Moshi makes the journey worthwhile. We stopped at Mombo for lunch.
At 4p.m. on Wednesday – a day after the start of my journey in Kampala – we arrived in Dar-es-salaam where I spent a night before taking a speed boat to Zanzibar the following day.
The beautiful storied boat charges between Tshs 13,000 to Tshs 20,000 (less than Ushs 60,000) for Tanzanians. Foreigners are charged $35. But if you speak Swahili and hide your passport, you can pay the Tanzanian charges, which I actually did.
Here, the East African Community spirit has not caught on. In the queue, an Indian lady who had paid the Tanzanian fee but had no residence permit was whisked away by police and what that means is that you have to pay a fine for cheating the Tanzanian government.
I was scared. The ‘good’ thing, however, is that these guys are more concerned about skin colour. The treat and delight Zanzibar is? Oh, that’s a story for another day!
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It was 7a.m. We had just crossed Namanga, the border point between Kenya and Tanzania, into a flat terrain quite similar to Karamoja. This was Masai land. The smooth and clear road here was a welcome relief from the bumpy and dusty stretch between Nairobi and Namanga.
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