Prime
Tales of a city truck that speaks
A motorcyclists rides past the low bed hauler truck at Shell Kyaliwajjala on the Kireka-Namugongo road. Photo/Stephen Otage
What you need to know:
- The abandoned truck is said to speak and threaten anyone who loiters around it.
A low bed hauler that has been parked at Shell Kyaliwajjala on the Kireka-Namugongo road, Kampala has become a legendary landmark. Everyone knows or has heard about the Mercedes Benz white car carrier with red and blue paintings on its hauler.
It is the truck that will not move an inch from whence it has been parked for more than four years now. It is the truck that speaks and threatens anyone who loiters around it. It is the truck whose side mirrors will move and slap you if you had any ill intention against it.
A legend in its own right, the abandoned truck is animatedly spoken about as far as Bugembe Town in Jinja City where a trucker was “surer than even my own existence” that only the owner can remove it.
At a heavy truck parking adjacent the Madhvani Roundabout in Jinja City, a lengthy argument among truckers during sourcing for this story ended with none ready to volunteer their identity despite the authority with which they spoke about the truck.
“I’m a driver myself, do you want those to follow me?” the trucker, in his 60s, said.
Authorities at Kira Municipal Council admitted they were at pains to even just tell who owns the truck. Apparently, the city division under which Kyaliwajjala and Namugongo falls, is aware that a few persons have claimed the truck and that at the same time, “everyone seems to believe it belonged to Michael ‘Templar’ Bisase.”
The Templar family says they are bemused by all they hear or read about the truck.
And the mystery goes on but it will all end soon, Mr Robert Tumusiime, a businessman who confirmed the truck was his property, has told Daily Monitor. But first, what happened and why is this truck abandoned here?
Can’t move an inch
On September 22 last year, Kireka-Namugongo road was a beehive of activity around Shell Kyaliwajjala. The police had come with gung-ho determination to settle the matter with the stubborn and mysterious truck once and after all.
A crowd quickly built in the area as many came to witness the operation to tow away the truck. It was the second time the police were taking the effort in three months after a botched one on June 2, 2022 when they attempted to clear the way for pilgrims arriving at the Uganda Martyrs Shrine in Namugongo.
“There was a big police vehicle, looking like that teargas one, with several policemen wearing overalls – from their engineering department probably,” says a resident of Kyaliwajjala who asked not to be named because the misambwa (ghost) in the truck will get back at me”.
Edgar, as we agreed to address him for this story, had a few photos and a video clip he had taken of a police operation during a botched attempt to tow away the truck.
The police moved the wrecker in on the truck and soon it was hitting a crescendo of noise as a crowd that had gathered to witness cheered.
“The truck did not move an inch. It was the police vehicle instead moving upwards after failure to manage the weight or for some other reason,” Edgar said.
“People say it is musambwa that can never allow it to move. Police said it needed more science and time to remove it.”
The two botched tow attempts, on June 2 and September 22, had only helped fuel rumours of black magic being the reason the truck has continued to claim the pedestrian walkway along the road.
Mr Joseph Mutebi, the mayor of Kira Municipality, faulted the police for not doing enough.
“They failed to tow the truck for no good reason really, they tried several times but failed. We spoke to them again, and they started talking about mechanical hindrances that do not add up – and which have led to speculation of witchcraft,” Mr Mutebi said.
With egg in the face, police would rather not go into the specifics of the case although they have a file about the truck awaiting revisiting, probably towards the next Martyrs’ Day event.
The spokesperson for traffic and road safety, Ms Faridah Nampiina, advised this writer to “get other stories to work on” instead. Her boss, Mr Fred Enanga, the police spokesperson, and Kawuma Nsereko, the Kampala Metropolitan Police Traffic commander, did not respond to several messages and phone calls about the same.
Mr Mutebi said it is their desire to remove the truck and end the inconvenience and road hazard that it poses.
“Honestly, I do not know the exact owner. They say it is for late Templar and there is a man who apparently claims to be the owner but I have never met him. We request police to work with URA (Uganda Revenue Authority) to establish the true owner, but all that may happen after towing it to a better place,” he said.
The Uganda National Road Authority (Unra), who last year issued an ultimatum to owners of vehicles parked along highways to remove them, said the abandoned truck was in its radar but that they were still cash-strapped.
“We have had financial challenges and this has affected implementation of most of our programmes, this one inclusive,” Unra spokesperson Allan Ssempebwa said.
“Once we are done with high-level stakeholder engagements, we’ll proceed to establish the owner [of the truck] but we already issued a caution to the public.”
The low bed hauler truck at Shell Kyaliwajjala on the Kireka-Namugongo road. Photo/Stephen Otage
Mysticism and black magic tales
City dwellers first noticed the colourful low bed trailer when it was parked on Semawatta Road in Ntinda. All was well, it appeared until it suddenly materialised near Shell Kyaliwajjala.
Social media took on the rest, with claims that the truck had been stolen and was due for sale in Tanzania before the thief somehow drove it back and parked it where it rests to-date.
A Twitter user, Rachel Mulungi, claimed side mirrors once “moved and slapped a passerby who went to pee near it [the truck].”
“Each time people come to tow it away, it threatens to disappear with everyone at the scene,” claimed Twitter user Omuzigaba.
Another claimed that nobody stole anything from the truck, that a man who tried had brought back the headlamps he had taken.
In Jinja, a truck driver this reporter found servicing a trailer alongside a mechanic, just took a cursory glance at the image of the abandoned truck in a smart phone and concluded it was black magic.
“There is another truck in Lukaya (Masaka) that is like that, you touch anything on it and bees will show up to deal with you,” he said.
The Daily Monitor could not independently verify the claims.
The constant in the tales is black magic and that it is owned by Templar, who died in a cruise boat accident in November 2018 along with his wife Sheila and 30 others.
Templar’s cousin Brian Isubikalu told Daily Monitor that his family was not bothered by the speculations.
“Why should we waste time talking about something we don’t know about? We’ve just been laughing at all the stories we hear or read about that truck,” he said.
Mr Tumusiime, a former marketing manager of Tata Uganda, admitted ownership of the truck but blocked any attempt to find out what went wrong leading to the abandonment.
“I don’t discuss personal business plans in the media. Soon, it [the truck] will be back on the road,” he said.
On further probing, Mr Tumusiime sounded wary.
“Mr Odongo, thank you for your concerns, the situation isn’t as appalling as you put it and it’s not the first time to script a false story to sell to the public. Remaining focused is my goal as silence is gold,” he said.
After 13 years with Tata, Mr Tumusiime founded Rosget Agencies and Logistics in 2014. His businesses included freight service and he reportedly supplied vehicles to the government too.
A source who led this reporter on Mr Tumusiime’s trails after supplying vehicles for police, Mr Tumusiime received “a lot of money and he bought two other trucks.” But things started going south in his businesses not long after.
Mr Tumusiime reportedly got a second wife. His first wife was not happy and the couple got estranged. Things then started falling apart like a bolt was being unscrewed from Mr Tumusiime’s business empire one by one.
“Around 2014 and 2015, he got into a deal to supply vehicles to the government but I think the deal backfired… he reached to an extent of selling his personal car,” the source said.
It was around this troubled time that the Mercedes Benz hauler was abandoned at Shell Kyaliwajjala, a white hard hat inside almost the constant reminder that the truck was not entirely dead.
In a country where valuable car parts are plucked off even in the most secure homesteads, the tales of black magic could have just played in the hands of the owner. What vandals would target such as lights and side mirrors remain intact.
Even better is that Mr Tumusiime has avoided paying parking fees for all the years it has been grounded along the road.
Air brakes system
Heavy trucks such as the Mercedes Benz low-bed carrier are mostly diesel engines that use air brake systems. Once activated, it locks all the wheels. It gets worse when the air brake is frozen.
It would require a big wrecker to tow away.
And where science fails, mysticism reigns.
“Did they start the engine before attempting to tow it away?” asked Rajab Muhammed, a mechanic in Kampala.
A quick check with Edgar (not real name), a resident of Kyaliwajjala, confirmed that police would not start the engine before attempting to tow it away.
While holding firmly onto his belief that the abandoned truck was not moving because of black magic, the middle-aged trucker in Jinja took this writer through the air brake system and how it operated.
“This is a booster,” he showed in his truck, “if you start the engine and release the booster, then this rod will move inside and all the wheels will open. Only then can a truck move. Without that, not even those big breakdown vehicles can pull it.”
He said there was no such as a thing as putting the truck in a neutral and then it rolls as is with light vehicles.
