When a security guard goes too far

Recently, I was travelling from a border town and just wondering, didn’t I have a taste of the trip? And I clearly understand the importance of security check points, perhaps I even support them. I would not want to travel in a bus or sit close to a trigger-happy female or male or a hit-man as they call them. I’m a peace loving Ugandan who enjoys a very calm environment, without fist fights and people inflicting injury on others; be it with knives or guns.

So when I go through airport security and I have to remove the belt holding my trousers because of its metallic buckle, it is all good. When I have to remove my fancy watch and earrings it is okay, I understand. Same thing when that metal detector is passed close to my body or bag, it is for national security. What I however do not understand is the security man at this particular check point somewhere close to Bugiri town. It was about 5:30a.m, the bus came to a sudden stop and taking his time about it, he finally climbed up looking at people’s faces mainly. I was seated at the very back of the bus trying to keep away the morning breeze so I had covered both myself and the bag with a shawl. “What is that you are covering?” he asked.

This I understood so I calmly told him it was my handbag and I removed my shawl for him to clearly see it. It was on my lap so he moved to feel it.But didn’t he feel it? At this point I wondered exactly what he was feeling. Was it me or it or the bag?

Very uncomfortably, I pushed the bag off of my thighs and to the next person who was a man so that he could finish his ‘feeling’ business. This must have irked him because he was back to touching the periphery of the bag definitely away from the man’s body. So he felt again and asked in a high tone, “What is this?” Things had turned from good to sour. I got the camera out of my bag and hang it up in there lest he thought it was a knife. “It is a camera,” I answered. Quite defeated, he checked again, and this time my bag was open for everyone to see. This infuriated me more; I guess that was payback for denying him his would-be pleasure. In there again was a jewellery box. So when I opened my bag wider, all he could see were my clothes.

I thought to myself, really is this how it is done or do guns these days feel like boxes, clothes or perhaps cameras? I felt sullied; it was like a man had touched me from head to toe, like they do for men at some check points. Really, if I looked suspicious why did they get a woman to check me up? I surely couldn’t have been the only danger in a bus of over 30 people. I was the only one who was checked and good Lord, if I had been made to go through it again, I would probably be soliciting for bail to get me out after committing a very bad crime.

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