Page 63 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 34

Tourism
T our ism

out of the window in disgust lamenting about

the new drivers on the road.
About 300 yards away in early morning, we
were awakening to “Alsalalala!” exclamations

from the Yusufu. We noticed six young men
covering their faces, standing in front of our
bus. They were armed with guns perched on
their legs. The driver stopped the bus at their
feet. The conductor sprinted from their seat and

shouted, “Cheki hapa! shika mzigo wako!” (We
have checked up and carried your luggage).
Suddenly, a sniffer dog jumped onto the bus

followed by one of the masked men holding a
pistol. The dogs jumped on a hijab lady causing
her to shake her legs in fear. The hijab became
loose and fell from her face. I bent down and
picked up the hijab from the sniffer dog’s

mouth. Immediately, Yusufu turned to my seat,
unlocked a box, and retrieved a brown envelope.
He handed it to the man in front of the bus and

took it with two fingers. At that moment I felt
a wave of fear on my nerves. The Garissa route
is notorious for hijacking crimes, bombings of Public transport boat yard in Mokowe
buses, and the illegal trafficking of migrants.

I began to regret my desire to encounter the of the masked men, and I forced a smile
Al-Shabaab militia on my journey to Lamu pretending nothing had happened. He
Island. I remember a professor warning me then turned away and signaled our bus

about traveling to Lamu by road. He gave me to continue our journey. The hijab lady
a newspaper cut out of a bus from Nairobi that ran very fast, shaking her legs while the
was bombed along the same route. It had a fatal conductor paced slowly.
picture of a passenger lying dead with gunshot
wounds and a wreckage bus on the road. At that I closed my eyes for a nap and wondered

time the men escorted the hijab lady a distance that why we used a dangerous route
behind the bus, followed by the conductor. (Al-Shabaab militia road) to Lamu, and

why the bus; Lamu Tamu Express, was
Yusufu followed the conductor folding his involved in crime by ferrying an illegal
hands tightly, and handed it to men with guns. hijab lady. The gesture of the driver and
For a brief moment, our eyes locked with one conductor before men with guns was

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