Another boda cyclist burns self over Shs100k bribe

By Richard Kintu

KIREKA

Residents of Kireka town in Kira Municipality, Wakiso district were on Sunday night gripped by shock following an act of elf-immolation by a frustrated bodaboda cyclist.
The cyclist who was still unidentified by press time torched himself at Kireka Police Station at around 9:00pm after he failed to redeem his motorbike. Eyewitnesses told The Second Opinion that the cyclist believed to be in his late twenties was riding to Mukono side when cops intercepted him and impounded his motorbike for riding past mandatory curfew time.
“He pleaded with the officers to give him the bike because it wasn’t his as he had just borrowed it from a colleague to try and get means of survival due to the harsh covi-19 induced poverty. The officers refused and he claimed that they asked him for Shs100,000 in order to give it to him,” an eyewitness said.
On failing to redeem the bike, a source says, the cyclist went and bought petrol from the nearby total fuel station. He then doused himself in it and sped to Kireka Police Station.
“He lit a match just at the entrance and then ran towards the reception area. He however failed to enter, then rushed to the tent opposite the reception house. He however ran to the trench by the roadside and rolled in the grass until the flames went out,” a source at the scene said.
By press time the cyclist who was wailing for help in Lusoga language due to pain had been rushed to hospital. The act comes a few months after another cyclist, Hussein Walugemebe burnt himself in Masaka district over similar frustration.