From Busia to Lugazi, HIV trails the trucks

Nov 30, 2014

As the world marks the World AIDS Day on Monday, New Vision focuses on the trade routes used by long-distance truck drivers.


trueMore than 30 years after HIV/ AIDS was first detected in Uganda, risky sexual behaviours are still rampant, threatening to increase HIV infections again. As the world marks the World AIDS Day on Monday – December 1 – New Vision highlights some of the trouble spots, with particular emphasis on the trade routes used by long-distance truck drivers. George Bita and Daniel Edyegu explore the eastern route.

For about sh10,000, we are able to make ends meet. Truck drivers prefer young-looking girls,” says a young barmaid at a guest house in Lacor.

She says the bargaining power of a sex worker depends on who is buying and how much money they have. Usually, a 30-minute sex session (short) costs sh10,000, while all-night sex goes for sh20,000.

However, the price can go down, depending on the number of clients on a particular day. She says they (barmaids) are the liaison between the client and the prostitutes.

That is the booming commercial sex trade along the trade route from Busia in eastern Uganda through Lira, Gulu and Amuru to South Sudan.

Taking a trip through the major stopovers and trading centres, it is evident that sexual immorality is the order of the day.

In Busia

At the Busia crossing point linking Uganda and Kenya, there is a long queue of heavy trucks stretching back on either side. Clearing agents busily crisscross the territory in a frantic effort to have the vehicles cleared for onward travel inland.

However, the time to be spent here seems to depend on the cargo involved and clearing agency.

For some truckers, it may be another 24 hours or so before they are allowed to continue on to their destinations.

This inevitably causes idleness on the part of the drivers. Immediately they park at the yard, several drivers head off to Kimana, a popular road. In Kimana, the ladies of the night book single rooms before the truckers arrive. It is said that it is hard for other people to find a room for the night.

Agnes Okurut, a resident of the area, says the dimly lit street presents the sex workers with perfect ‘cover’ to bargain with clients.

“That infamous road is known within Busia and beyond. The truck drivers know where to find them,” Okurut says.

In Bugiri

Just as their Busia counterparts settle in for the night, drivers who managed to get authorisation to move on head to the next popular stopover, almost 38km away at Naluwerere town in Bugiri district.

Bakari Maganda, a local leader, explains that due to the huge number of long-distance drivers stopping here, authorities set up a parking yard in 2009 for safety and organisation.

“The new yard located near the Pearly Gates Pentecostal Church could take in 120 trailers, but it was abandoned due to the poor access road. Trucks would get stuck every time it rained,” Maganda says.

Unlike in Busia, the truckers seem to have a field day along the singlestreet of Naluwerere as hordes of women keep hanging around their vehicles way into the wee hours of the morning.

It is also common to see a woman disappear into a truck for an hour or so and then re-emerge to keep loitering on the main road. Not even the rain stops them as the prostitutes come armed with thick raincoats, jackets and umbrellas.
 

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Children involved

The presence of underage girls, who move aimlessly in between the parked trucks at about 10:00pm, is a particular concern.

A recent women and youth services study shows that the most of children involved in commercial sex are aged between eight and 17.

A sample size study of 143 respondents along five truck stopover centres nationwide indicated that 97% of the children were orphans or females who had dropped out of school.

Meanwhile, the trading centre operates throughout the night as drivers booze, play pool or feast on roasted chicken in between sessions with sex workers. Loud music spices up the merrymaking.

Jafari Kyambona, a bodaboda rider (motorcyclist), says they too are cashing in on the booming sex trade.

“We make a lot of cash in the wee hours of the morning as the truck drivers finally start their vehicles and the women need to get home. They pay between sh5,000 and sh10,000 to Bugiri town. During the day, it costs about sh1,000,” he reveals.

He adds that riders also help transport fuel siphoned out of trucks by jobless youth.

“The youth benefit from the stop-over by getting cheaper fuel from the tankers. At times, it is sold to them by the drivers, while others simply siphon it out under the cover of the night.”

In Bulanga

It seems that each stopover has peculiar behaviour unique to it. In Bulanga trading centre in Luuka district, bold sex workers are stationed on the roadside by 5:00pm, waiting for the tankers drivers.

The sex workers accost the truck drivers or use previously obtained telephone contacts to call prospective clients after seeing a familiar license plate.

Abdu Magid Padere, a driver, says the turn-boys sleep in the trucks while drivers spend the nights in lodges.

“There is an emergency bed just behind the driver’s seat; that is where the turn-boy sleeps. We cannot just abandon the truck in foreign territory,” Padere says.

Samuel Mulumba, the LC1 chief of Bulanga, says the truckers are a sort of lifeblood for the locals and they cannot do without them.

“They have helped boost incomes for almost everyone. The sex workers, fuel dealers and restaurant operators earn significant amounts of money, while lodge owners get lots of cash daily.”

In Mbiko

Further westward, Mbiko is another popular stopover for truck drivers. The roadside is lined with trucks. And again, the sex workers cannot escape one’s eye.

In their skimpy outfits, they never stray too far from the stationary cars trucks. This booming sex trade has certainly had repercussions.

Dorah Namazzi, a resident, says death due to “long illness” has had a significant toll on the prostitutes in Mbiko.

“Many of them are just tenants so they are not buried here. Whenever one is bedridden with signs like kisipi (Kaposi sarcoma) associated with HIV/ AIDS, she is taken back to the village and we only get news about her death,” Namazzi says.

Dr. Michael Osinde, the medical superintendent of Jinja regional referral hospital, says The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) has an outreach programme that targets most vulnerable groups like sex workers.

“Mbiko is one of the areas involved in the sensitisation campaign. The project distributes both male and female condoms. It also offers voluntary HIV/ AIDS counseling and testing to curb the high prevalence rate,” Osinde says.
 

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William Soita, a member of the village health team, taking the details of a patient at Malaba health centre


Lugazi

In Lugazi town, the sex trade booms on Busabala Road, where about 30 trailers park. According to Simon Baraza, a bodaboda rider, truckers usually overwhelm the place over the weekend as they raid social places to have fun.

“Most patrons at Liz Hotel, Chipa Bar and Milan Motel are truck drivers out to enjoy themselves. It is at such places that they interact with sex workers,” Baraza says.

Much of the booking is by telephone. “The driver makes a call to ascertain whether the prostitute he wants is available. Then he pays a bodaboda cyclist to ferry him there and back,” Baraza says.

He says depending on whether it is live sex or protected, the sex worker earns between sh3,000 and sh4,000. Other areas with similar problems along the eastern route include Busowa, Idudi and Busesa.  

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MALABA: PROSTITUTION AND ALCOHOL TAKE OVER

Still on the eastern border of Uganda, Malaba has not survived the brunt of commercial sex, fuelled by the booming truck drivers.

Commonly known as ‘the Juba’ of the east, Malaba is full of people by people from all parts of the country and the neighbouring countries.

This, according to Vincent Okome, a resident of the town, has bred vices such as prostitution and alcohol abuse.

“Being a border town, the mobile population, especially truck drivers from Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Eritrea stopover for the night. They pass time by engaging with sex workers for sh3,000 for protected sex and sh5,000 for unprotected sex. The sex workers often opt for live sex as it pays more,” Okome says.

He says this has pushed up the prevalence rates of HIV/ AIDS in the area.

“We used to have Family Health International which spearheaded the anti-HIV/ AIDS campaign, but they wound up in 2011. This has left a big gap. We need a recreation centre, where we can play videos on HIV/AIDS to preoccupy the truck drivers when they stop over. We must also have a container for the distribution of condoms.” true

Barbra Achan (right), the in charge of Malaba health centre, explains that a successful anti-HIV/AIDS campaign in requires the involvement of all to create lasting impact.

That, however, is yet to be done.

At Malaba health centre alone, 620 patients have registered for anti-retroviral treatment. But the number of infected persons in the town could be as high as 12,000.  

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trueHOW SOITA GOT INFECTED

William Soita, 52, is one of the 12,000 people living with HIV in Malaba. Soita, 52, married his first wife, Florence Itere, in 1980. They have 13 children, three of whom have passed away.

This wealth of children, by ordinary standards, would be an ideal source of satisfaction for an average husband.

“You know men are men,” Soita jokes as he flips to this page of his life.

“In 2000, I started serving as a member of the village health team (VHT) in Malaba town council. Then, we would move from door-to- door educating the communities on the relevance of having pit latrines.

“After combing the various villages, the exhaustion would be overwhelming at the end of the day. One day, my friends convinced me to sit down at one of the social joints in Asinge ward to take ajon (a local alcoholic millet brew).

“The more I sipped the ajon, the more I felt attracted to Joyce, the woman who was serving us. With time, I entered into a relationship with her.

“We had started staying together when I started hearing rumours from my friends that Joyce was HIV-positive. I did not take this seriously. So I took an HIV test in Mukuju Health Centre IV in 2006,” Soita says.

He tested positive. So did Joyce. He convinced his first wife, Itere, to go for the test too. She tested negative. However, with a subsequent test in 2007, Itere tested positive.

Fortunately, none of the children is HIV-positive. Rather than wallow in self-pity and resign himself to his fate, Soita continues to serve as a member of the VHT at Malaba Health Centre III.


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