Dear Litterbugs, stop this dirty crime
Author, Stella Riunga Rop.
What you need to know:
- Therefore, let the law of the jungle prevail! Taxi drivers and boda boda riders, especially should be free to impose whatever punishment they deem fit on their littering passengers.
Brethren, we cannot continue like this. I am so tired of watching people treat our roads like open-air dustbins, turning taxis and personal cars into flying trashcans. Yoghurt tubs, maize cobs, banana peels, chicken bones, cling film, fruit peels, chewing gum wrappers, gobs of phlegm and saliva (yuck!) …. There is nothing our poor roads have not been defiled by.
What punishment is befitting for these serial offenders? It is not an issue of education, because even those who claim to be well-educated (an education which obviously failed to include how not to behave like an antisocial lout) do it too. It is not an issue of age because the perpetrators include grandmothers as well as children. Oh dear!
We already have laws that forbid littering, but nobody cares to enforce them. I think the best way to go about it is to amend the laws so that the drivers of the offending vehicles impose the punishment, or else pay the fines themselves. Let me explain.
Picture your average taxi driver and conductor. Do they look like they are ready to lose even Shs500 to pay a fine for some nitwit who does not know how to use a dustbin? Not at all. Therefore, let the law of the jungle prevail! Taxi drivers and boda boda riders, especially should be free to impose whatever punishment they deem fit on their littering passengers.
Five quick strokes of the whip? We will not stop you. Being paraded up and down a major street with a sign written ‘I am a litterbug’ on their backs? Even better. Running behind the taxi or boda boda they were littering from, all the way to their destination? What genius! And all these in addition to the litterbugs being sentenced to Friday street cleaning duty from 9am to 6pm, what a cure! Imagine the cruel noonday sun roasting their necks as they wonder how to scrape used condoms off the streets. (Do not worry, they would be provided with gloves and proper cleaning attire.)
MPs, are you reading this? Please do something useful for once and pass this as a bylaw.
Litterbugs, watch out!
