CAUGHT IN-FLAGRANTE

The Police may be drunk with POMBE

By Zahra Abdul

   For starters, I do not know much about this Public Order Management Bill and don’t lay any claims on how it operates as a law. My colleagues chide me about it, some crazy ones who indulge in the bitter, have even gone so far as naming it POMBE (name for local brew). While I have read inexplicably negative reviews about it, intellectual parliamentary discourse has never been my thing, until POMB hit me in a recent incident in Mengo, which had me transformed ...well, you could say “POMBE-CALLY”.

   You would think I must be certifiably insane for even renaming this POMB, but yesterday I was arrested by the police for sitting down with a friend in a public place opposite a church in Mengo. At that point it didn’t occur to me that, sitting next to a highway would incur us the wrath of the police. Yet in this case, we were faced with an unwavering policeman whom we tried to explain to that we had no ill-will with anyone, and anything. Yes, you guessed right. He asked for 50K, we jammed.

   That refusal earned me and my friend a stint on the “holy torture” rack of a police station in Mengo. They threatened to detain us overnight and take us to court the next day. POMB-E was really in force here. But we stood our ground and refused to be hoodwinked, and we were released after 20 minutes. Those 20 minutes of hell, turned me literary almost pink. I intimated to a friend about this, and he pointed to POMB, like “gal, which rock have you been living under lately, didn’t you know?” Rightly or wrongly, I was shocked by what for me was a revelation, my first experience at a police station, and with this POMB thing, probably many more to come. Perhaps it’s just me. Maybe I am just paranoid. Perhaps the rumours I have heard of heavy government hand if you were found seated in twos or threes eating your chicken is not true. 

Even simple gatherings like this one will be enough to provoke the police

Maybe the rumour of a heavy government hand if you were found whispering to someone is really a myth. Eh... the lugambo in Uganda, especially on social media has gone off the rails. You could easily debunk this myth, until it happens to you. And while POMB gives the police instant gratification, the buzz on social media shows otherwise, and suggests it has left the nation wheezing and riddled with this lugambo. In fact while the police could see in Deputy Speaker, Jacob Oulanyah (who helped pass this law) a super-hero, critics out there see a law that was passed recklessly. I am not sure it was, but I surely witnessed its potential to be abused, in fact I am on bunkenke (tenterhooks) now. Yet, on the other hand, I am not sure if my arrest had anything to do with this POMB thing. Maybe I appeared idle and disorderly? Yes, when it comes to my yoghurt, I can be overly protective, and show certain ferocious signs, but folks...I was in Mengo, and the nearest “yoghurt” or semblance of one as far as my eyes could see, was a cow mowing nearby.

Such actions by police will no longer be news

    So next time you sit down to eat your much prized fried cassava, think twice. You never remember these things but the crapulence this POMB could bring to your life, makes it worth considering every time you walk out. Personally, I would remove this POMB thing instantly, because “Pombe-cally” it’s getting into the heads of the police. Keep your eyes peeled folks. Pop some popcorn as you watch this POMB saga unfold. Sit back and watch the end of Kaboozi-cating on a bench as we know it. Would it be “prosaic” of me to suggest that with this law, the police have the potential of getting drunk with power? Well, over to you Afande Kayihura