Slamming in shillings at the taxi door

When the times get tough, the tough get going they say, and one woman could not have been any tougher as she joined the men’s world to eke out a living, writes Esther Oluka

A taxi halted right where I was standing and a short, dark woman who seemed to be in her early 30s emerged out of it and began calling for passengers who were going to Ntinda, Kamyokya and Najjera. The boldness that she displayed despite the few murmurs from mostly the females passing by was intriguing. The interest I got as a journalist was overwhelming since it was my first time to see a woman do the kind of job that she was doing. It was then that I made up my mind to try to get her phone number for a possible interview, at least, for everyone to understand the nature of her work.

After noticing that the taxi was almost getting filled up, I forcefully fought my way inside and luckily occupied the seat next to the conductor’s. Throughout the journey from Kampala and eventually to Najjera, I noticed a certain kind of calmness and kindness that she portrayed especially towards school going children even those that did not have enough transport fare.

When we finally reached the Najjera stage, I tactfully made myself the last one to alight from the taxi. She became a bit skeptical when I introduced myself and told her my motive of doing an interview, but after some thought, she finally obliged and agreed to have the interview the following day.

Judging from what I had witnessed the previous day, I started the interview by asking if she has ever gotten shy when doing her work. “My job has never been embarrassing since it is part of my earnings that bring food to the table,” she replies.

Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya in 1987, Jamilla Juma Atieno was raised together with seven siblings by a single mother since her father died when she was only three years of age. “Life was very cruel to us since mother’s little earnings from her grocery business could not sustain everyone in the family,” she sadly says.

Despite these harsh times, she was able to complete her Senior Six and even went ahead to apply for an accounting course at the Kenyatta University. Unfortunately, since the tuition fees were too high, she opted to find a job. “My mother was pleased that I wanted to find a job and help out with the house expenses. She even went ahead to talk to her older sister, my aunt, who was staying in Kampala about the idea of me working since she had numerous connections,” Atieno recounts.

Around the late 1990’s, Atieno finally came to Kampala and settled in with her aunt and even started working as a Multiplex street parking attendant. This was about the same time that she met her partner, 38-year-old Ismail Katumba, who was working as a taxi driver. After few months of courting, she move in with him but the issue of her salary was a constant topic among the couple. “I earned about shs140,000 a month from my Multiplex job and this seemed like a lot for me but to my boyfriend, it was just peanuts,” she says.

Frustrated about the frequent quarrels she had with Katumba over her pay, she decided to tell him off one evening that if her salary could not sustain the household, then he should just make her his conductor. “When I persisted with the option, his usual reply was that there was no way he could let someone he was romantically involved with be his female conductor,” Atieno recalls, laughing.
But early last year Katumba himself reintroduced the idea and told her she could start as his female conductor anytime she wanted. On why he changed his mind, Atieno wonders up to date.

Bitter sweet experience
Atieno’s days start at 5.00 am and end at 9.00 pm and usually during morning hours, school going children studying in different parts of the city are her customers. As the day progresses, especially during lunch hours, customers become few and it is during such times that Atieno settles to posho, matooke and beans for lunch, a meal she says bo osts her energy.

The people who appreciate her job are mostly male passengers and most times, these double the amount of transport fare they are supposed to pay. “If the transport fee was for example shs2000, a passenger can give me shs4000,” Atieno says with a smile.

She has also gotten to be a favorite conductor among children as well as other drivers. John Kakaire, a Primary Four pupil of Nakasero Primary School describes her as sweet and tender hearted while Abdullah Kayondo, a driver and close friend regards her as a motherly version of the male conductors.

To all the perks of her doing this commonly men’s job, there’s the murmurs, sneers as well as laughter that she mostly gets from the female pedestrians when she is calling out for passengers to board her taxi. The misconception that she is female robber is one that she is constantly battling. This was especially during last year when taxi robberies were rampant. “Since I was new on the job at the time, most individuals thought I was conniving with my partner to rob passengers of their property since it was always in the news that women played a vital role in the thefts,” she says.

This misjudgment totally robbed Atieno of many passengers and it even reached a point where she thought quitting was the best option. The encouragement she got from her partner however made her cope with the challenging times. And her persistence has in time paid off as she today gets surprised when people who mistook her for an armed robber stop to apologise.

At home

When she gets home after work, she counts the day’s profit which usually ranges from about shs 50,000 to shs 100,000. After subtracting her share, she gives the rest to Katumba. On Sundays, which is her only free day in a week, she helps out her eight-year-old daughter with homework and for the last borne, three-year-old Yusuf Ssali, reading to him is what she enjoys most.On the issue of the now operating pioneer buses and what effect she feels they will have on her business she says, “You cannot consider taxis irrelevant when people still fight for them especially during evening hours.”
Atieno’s enthusiasm and passion for her conducting job convince me that she has either resigned to her fate or she is just satusfied with her job.

Katumba on his partner’s job...
I was totally against the idea of my girlfriend working with me as my conductor mainly because I feared the mockery that both of us would be subjected to by other colleagues. But after giving it a thought, I finally obliged because I wanted to see how the experience would turn out to be.
One year down the road, I should confess that she is the best person one can have as a business partner. The outstanding behavior that she has exhibited is that whenever we have a misunderstanding at work, she waits until we are home to discuss it. That is really exceptional of her.