It’s no longer about the car, but the plate
Jun 05, 2008
RANGE Rover, Mercedes, Escalade or whatever it is, it passes like any other car on Kampala’s crowded roads. <br>To stand out, the rich and famous have decided to take on personalised car number plates to announce their presence. Some are merely names while others are cryptic statements.
By Emmanuel Ssejjengo
RANGE Rover, Mercedes, Escalade or whatever it is, it passes like any other car on Kampala’s crowded roads. To stand out, the rich and famous have decided to take on personalised car number plates to announce their presence. Some are merely names while others are cryptic statements.
First, they mainly used their names, like the boarding school pupils labeling their clothes, basins and other items. That was the time when you had labels like Chameleone and Wavah. Gordon Wavamuno has since thrown out the personalised plates.
Fast ahead, these rich wits have moved on. You do not have to label your fancy “wheels with your nameâ€. You just have to make very bold, even puzzling statements and the rest will fall in place.
The whole town will then call you by that name, know that you own that car and you become the talk of town. These tags read like the Bukedde front page one-worded intriguing headlines.
Just like when Bebe Cool hit town with Bafudde (They are dead), some went on to refer to him as Bafudde, which was also his title track on that album.
But beyond that, all the Range Rovers got the tag of Bafudde. But the Bafudde plate was sometimes prophetic. For a long time, the Range Rover was stuck at Speke Resort Munyonyo, with conflicting reasons hitting the press.
The tabloids claimed the car had been retained over a debt. The owner, Bebe Cool, said he had lost the car keys. Whatever the truth, we may never know. “I set the pace. When I called my car Bafudde, all the other Range Rovers were referred to as Bafudde,†says Bebe Cool.
Bebe Cool also had plans of bringing in the Kitalo tag, but withdrew the idea after he was advised that he was casting a death spell. Currently, he has plans of coming up with Munene (The Big One) after launching his album on August 29 at Hotel Africana.
“Bafudde and Munene will move side by side all the time,†he boasts. His reasoning is that the stunt will promote his upcoming Munene concerts.
“There is this ‘Bafudde’ in town with plates reading Mumpowe (give up on me),†is typical of Kampala speech now. The Mumpowe owner made such a bold statement that attempts to know the actual owner for the past three weeks have bore no fruits. The owner simply shut down Kampala’s rumour mill.
However, there is danger in using tags that are easily changeable by pessimists. It happened to Pastor William Muwanguzi. When he fell into financial problems and his Kiwedde (It is accomplished) Hummer was no longer a regular on the roads, the joke was that Kiwedde had become a Kiweddemu (burnt out).
And now, following his recent trouble with the law over alleged car theft, the Kiweddemu tag is making headway.
If you cannot be in people’s good books, stay away from using such number plates.
Just when Kampala was awash with demonstrations from market vendors (especially at Kisekka and Nakasero markets), the SEYA Hummer would be seen driving past.
With such a violent crowd, didn’t Mayor Nasser Ssebagala fear a physical confrontation?
But some of the personalised plates reflect professions. You are not a genius if you guessed that PSALM 8 belongs to a pastor. Some personalities like Sudhir Ruparelia, Joystna Ruparelia and Stephen Kavuma only use their initial: SR, JR and K, respectively.
But isn’t there such a contrast between SR and JR? Doesn’t one originally mean senior and the latter junior? But if this was the insinuation, women activists would be up in arms against it.
There are deeper revelations into family matters. The MRS. TM tag beats all of them hands down. The Infinity is owned by Mrs. Tom Mugenga. Tom Mugenga is a clearing and forwarding tycoon. And when he parks his TM next to the wife’s, is it bliss or tight marking?
However, there are regulations that govern the acquisition of personalised plates. Bobi Wine’s claim that he was denied the H.E (His Excellency) plates seems to hold water after all. He had wanted it in reference to his title as the president of the Republic of Uganja.
He settled for Fire, and has been known to spit fire on his detractors for such a long time. For so long, Bobi Wine has claimed to be the president of the ghetto, a title he recently cemented with the Ghetto car plate.
Take AK 47. It is neither owned by a gun dealer, a war veteran nor a soldier. It translates as Andrew Kananura aka Desh. And so what does the 47 stand for? It is the curiosity these personalised plates create that makes them outstanding.
RANGE Rover, Mercedes, Escalade or whatever it is, it passes like any other car on Kampala’s crowded roads. To stand out, the rich and famous have decided to take on personalised car number plates to announce their presence. Some are merely names while others are cryptic statements.
First, they mainly used their names, like the boarding school pupils labeling their clothes, basins and other items. That was the time when you had labels like Chameleone and Wavah. Gordon Wavamuno has since thrown out the personalised plates.
Fast ahead, these rich wits have moved on. You do not have to label your fancy “wheels with your nameâ€. You just have to make very bold, even puzzling statements and the rest will fall in place.
The whole town will then call you by that name, know that you own that car and you become the talk of town. These tags read like the Bukedde front page one-worded intriguing headlines.
Just like when Bebe Cool hit town with Bafudde (They are dead), some went on to refer to him as Bafudde, which was also his title track on that album.
But beyond that, all the Range Rovers got the tag of Bafudde. But the Bafudde plate was sometimes prophetic. For a long time, the Range Rover was stuck at Speke Resort Munyonyo, with conflicting reasons hitting the press.
The tabloids claimed the car had been retained over a debt. The owner, Bebe Cool, said he had lost the car keys. Whatever the truth, we may never know. “I set the pace. When I called my car Bafudde, all the other Range Rovers were referred to as Bafudde,†says Bebe Cool.
Bebe Cool also had plans of bringing in the Kitalo tag, but withdrew the idea after he was advised that he was casting a death spell. Currently, he has plans of coming up with Munene (The Big One) after launching his album on August 29 at Hotel Africana.
“Bafudde and Munene will move side by side all the time,†he boasts. His reasoning is that the stunt will promote his upcoming Munene concerts.
“There is this ‘Bafudde’ in town with plates reading Mumpowe (give up on me),†is typical of Kampala speech now. The Mumpowe owner made such a bold statement that attempts to know the actual owner for the past three weeks have bore no fruits. The owner simply shut down Kampala’s rumour mill.
However, there is danger in using tags that are easily changeable by pessimists. It happened to Pastor William Muwanguzi. When he fell into financial problems and his Kiwedde (It is accomplished) Hummer was no longer a regular on the roads, the joke was that Kiwedde had become a Kiweddemu (burnt out).
And now, following his recent trouble with the law over alleged car theft, the Kiweddemu tag is making headway.
If you cannot be in people’s good books, stay away from using such number plates.
Just when Kampala was awash with demonstrations from market vendors (especially at Kisekka and Nakasero markets), the SEYA Hummer would be seen driving past.
With such a violent crowd, didn’t Mayor Nasser Ssebagala fear a physical confrontation?
But some of the personalised plates reflect professions. You are not a genius if you guessed that PSALM 8 belongs to a pastor. Some personalities like Sudhir Ruparelia, Joystna Ruparelia and Stephen Kavuma only use their initial: SR, JR and K, respectively.
But isn’t there such a contrast between SR and JR? Doesn’t one originally mean senior and the latter junior? But if this was the insinuation, women activists would be up in arms against it.
There are deeper revelations into family matters. The MRS. TM tag beats all of them hands down. The Infinity is owned by Mrs. Tom Mugenga. Tom Mugenga is a clearing and forwarding tycoon. And when he parks his TM next to the wife’s, is it bliss or tight marking?
However, there are regulations that govern the acquisition of personalised plates. Bobi Wine’s claim that he was denied the H.E (His Excellency) plates seems to hold water after all. He had wanted it in reference to his title as the president of the Republic of Uganja.
He settled for Fire, and has been known to spit fire on his detractors for such a long time. For so long, Bobi Wine has claimed to be the president of the ghetto, a title he recently cemented with the Ghetto car plate.
Take AK 47. It is neither owned by a gun dealer, a war veteran nor a soldier. It translates as Andrew Kananura aka Desh. And so what does the 47 stand for? It is the curiosity these personalised plates create that makes them outstanding.