The bus driver was the bread earner

Jun 13, 2005

IT is a family of Muslims where all members specialised in driving buses but the job has brought problems to them.

By Chris Ahimbisibwe
IT is a family of Muslims where all members specialised in driving buses but the job has brought problems to them.
Shafir Birigigi, 33, was a senior driver in the Regional bus company, whose bus was involved in an accident at Katuna last Tuesday.
He died in the accident, the third in the family to die under similar circumstance.
His brother Mudashir Birigigi perished in a mini-bus accident at Nyakabirizi trading centre in Bushenyi district in 1992 while driving from Busia. Only his ashes were buried.
Jaria Muzamiru, a cousin to Shafir, also perished in a bus fire in 2003 at Lake Rutoto in Bunyaruguru, where she was working as a conductor. Her body was buried in Kasese in a mass grave.
They were all children of the late Aziz Birigigi. Birigigi was well off and had many vehicles. This could have attracted the children to specialise in driving.
“Shafir dropped out of school while in primary five and started driving,” said Siragi Tumushabe his eldest brother and the manager of Concern Buses.
Shafir had spent 15 years in the business. He started by driving a pick-up, then Styer, Concode Line, Jussy, SB, Horizon, COMESA and Jaguar Buses. This promoted him to the Regional bus. He was also an international bus driver who has worked in Namibia.
“I came to know Shafir in 1999 when I used to meet him on the way from Kigali. He has been a good driver on foreign routes,” says Paskari Nsenga, 49, a senior Jaguar Buses driver.
Paskari says Shafir had never been involved in any accident since he started driving buses.
“My family is finished because of buses. Shafir has left me. Whenever he got a salary, he bought me two gomesis. Shafir has been looking after the whole family, 25 children of his relatives including eight orphans have been in his hands! Shafir,” cried Shafir’s 60-year-old mother, Mwashit Birigigi, after the burial of her son on Wednesday at Rugyenda, Bunyaruguru, Bushenyi district.
Before the accident, Shafir had called home requesting his mother to send someone to Mbarara to wait for him so he could send money and food home.
His wife, Gorrette Mariam, 27, says she had spent one week without seeing her husband because he was driving long routes. Gorrette describes her husband as a person who loved his life and who loved his three children.
Ends

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