One of a kind: Rose Apio, URA’s sole female driver

On a typical sunny Kampala afternoon, I walk through the imposing gates of Uganda Revenue Authority headquarters in Nakawa to meet Rose Apio Dawah; the only female driver employed by URA.

Her warm smile and soft tone of voice are the first striking impressions I have of her; ones that you would least expect her to possess considering the nature of job role that she holds with the tax body.

Towering at 6ft, this mother and wife is a woman of many hats. I find her meticulously dressed in the URA uniform standing next to the driver’s side of a spotlessly clean 2018 Toyota Hilux double cabin.

As we walk together, the command with which she takes her fast and yet calculated steps is almost intimidating. But as she tells her story, one realises that it is the passion that drives her and this is reflected not only in her gait but also in our ensuing conversation.

Raised in a family of nine children, she has a twin sister, four other sisters, and three brothers. Apio never had it easy growing up in rural Busia.

However, looking at her today, her demeanour and passion would never reveal the challenges that she has had to overcome in rising to become the only female driver and only the third ever female driver in URA out of a male-dominated field of 173 drivers.

Rose Apio has spent 14 years of her career at URA.

She had her early school days in the border district of Busia then later attended Kitante Hill School for her O’ Levels. She then joined Utali College School in Nairobi, Kenya where she pursued a catering course. Upon completion, she was employed at Fairway Hotel to work as a waitress.

How she started driving

While working at Fairway Hotel, she met a French man, Jean Claude, who was working with Kasese Cobalt Company. He convinced her to work for him at his home as well as at the private guest house for the company’s expatriate workers in Entebbe.

Apio narrates that Claude would drive her to Nakasero Market to pick groceries for the running of the guest house and this was rather inconvenient for Claude.

She recounts that he realised that it was more expedient to pay for her to learn how to drive so that she could drive herself to the market to make the purchases.

Having secured a driving permit Apio thereafter oscillated between cooking and driving. She was in charge of picking guests from the airport and driving them around the city too.

The arrangement sat so well with her employers, they saw no need to hire a driver since Apio was so good at it. Having gained confidence on the road, Apio started driving her employers to Kasese.

She looks back with such glee and describes the Kasese journeys as some of her best because they made her who she is today.

From that point on, there was no looking back. “I realised then that I could do anything. The trust that my clients had in me gave me the confidence to go the extra mile,” she says.

Rose Apio is held in high regard by her workmates at URA.

When Kasese Cobalt Company was closed, Apio took up another job as a driver with Yellow Cab under the proprietorship of Robert Wakabi, where she worked for six years.

Working with URA

In 2006, a friend notified her about a Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) advertisement for fleet assistants (drivers).

Out of 200 applicants at the time, she is the only female who was shortlisted and later on taken on. Apio narrates that her interview was very dramatic.

She naturally loves dressing up so on the day of the interview, she pulled out her best suit and when she entered the room, the interviewers thought she was a supervisor or manager until she told them that she had come to be interviewed.

Like any other driver, Apio went through vigorous training, had to take defensive driving lessons and got a certificate in first aid application and customer care.

She was subsequently posted to Entebbe with a Suzuki (Maruti) as her first car. She has since driven Pajeros and pick-up trucks during her URA tenure.

About her work

According to Apio, driving is more than sitting behind the steering wheel. "I cannot start driving until I have done all the pre-checks. I check for the water, oil, tyres and all the required mechanicals” says Apio.

She never drives dirty cars and as a woman, she says her car should smell good too. “Since the vehicle is my office, I ensure that my clients have a very conducive environment. I even select the kind of music I play in the car depending on who I am driving," she adds.

Apio never wears skirts or dresses to work. Pressed as to why, she reveals that because of the nature of her work, dresses/skirts are difficult to manage. Some keep pulling up which she finds indecent especially for her male clients. So she sticks to trouser suits. 

Rose on the Road

She laments about the conduct of some drivers there are in the country. Apio points out indiscipline and impatience as the biggest problems and causes of road accidents on our roads. And just for the record, for the 14 years she has been a driver, she has never had a single accident, something she attributes to good driving discipline and God.

Apio has on a number of times driven her clients to as far as, Kamwenge, Kabale, Kisoro, and many other districts in Uganda.

The farthest Apio has driven is Mombasa to Kampala. When she took a break of 6months from URA, she still got something to occupy herself. She would, therefore, drive imported cars from Mombasa to Kampala. She did it a couple of times but gave up because of insecurity. In that break also, she drove the wife to the then American ambassador and it is such moments and memories that keep her going.

Challenges

According to Apio, challenges will always be a part of life, the difference is how one looks at them. The one thing maybe that bothers her is being away from family especially when she is out in the field. It gets her husband to worry about her safety but also as a mother, her children miss her presence.

Opportunities and achievements

Once in URA, Apio says that she made a serious decision to give her employers the best. Indeed, hard work paid off and has been recognised by the tax body a number of times. But the most outstanding was when she got recognition as “The Unsung Hero” something she holds so dearly.

"I really felt so important and it gave me more reason to work harder”. She is grateful to her employers for giving her a chance to tread on a male-dominated path.

With the kind of daily schedule that any fleet assistant in URA has, one would imagine that Apio has enough on her plate. She has not let her 8-5 job limit her but has gone on to establish a successful cake business under the name “Dollar Cakes.”

With the catering knowledge she acquired years back underwritten by unwavering passion, she believes that her cakes are some of the tastiest. Evidently most of her clients are as a result of recommendation. She says she gets orders from so many people including her bosses at URA and even outside the country.

Apio is also an avid supporter of URA FC. She says that away from driving, football makes her adrenaline race. She looks out for the club’s fixtures and is even in the fans club.

Rose Apio is an avid supporter of URA FC.

Perhaps the only thing pending on her list is rally driving. Apio admits that she loves fast cars. She at one time considered it but because of her busy schedule, it did not materialise. She still hopes she will do it at some point.

She believes that apart from our biological differences, what a man can do a woman can do, and even better. Thus hopes that her story will encourage other women especially young women to get over job prejudices.

“If there is an opportunity, do not reject it, it may be your ticket to your next assignment. There is so much to do, that there only a few people to do it," says Apio.

What others say

Hassan Abdulai, the acting supervisor fleet office holds Apio in very high regard. He says that the vehicles Apio has been assigned to are always in good condition; an indicator that she is a careful and disciplined driver. As one of the people who interviewed her at the time of joining the tax body, Hassan says that he is not surprised at her successful career.

 While interviewing her before being employed by URA, he was amazed by the skills Apio displayed. He says that the interviews prospective drivers go through are not a piece of cake as it involved balancing the vehicles in some of the most challenging roads. “One could tell that she is professional. It’s no wonder that she beat so many men to get the job” adds Hassan.

On the other hand, John Pule, Apio’s colleague, describes her as a fighter and a team player. He says that the advantage with women is that because they are nurturers, it makes them critical thinkers before execution. She brings in motherly aspects and this is uplifting especially when we are weighed down by work challenges.

An officer who has been driven by Apio marvels at the fact that her car is always immaculately clean. He goes on to add that the fact that Apio has never got an accident in the 14 years of her career at URA shows that she is an extraordinary person. She is respected by colleagues and superiors alike.

It has been said that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Apio has clearly covered “thousands of miles” and is well on her journey to defining a very unique legacy.