A guard shoots bodaboda rider

By Robert Mutasi 

A commotion was witnessed at a petrol station in Kampala, Uganda after the station's guard shot a motorcycle taxi driver.

According to the Nile Post newspaper, the boda boda (motorcycle taxi) driver arrived at the station at dawn with the intention of refuelling his motorcycle.

After being served petrol, the boda driver pulled out a 10,000 Ugandan shilling note from his pocket and handed it to the petrol station attendant.

However, the attendant claimed that the note was torn and asked the boda driver to give him another note in place of the current one.

The boda driver strongly protested, insisting that the note was legitimate and not counterfeit, and that he too had received it in that condition in the course of business and money exchange from one customer to another.

The petrol station attendant insisted on him giving different money, but the boda driver decided to leave the station.

That's when the station's guard, who was armed with a gun, shot the boda driver, hitting him in the buttocks.

"The boda driver is admitted at Mulago Hospital for treatment while the guard has been arrested," Nile Post quoted Luke Owoyesigyire, the police spokesperson in the capital of Uganda.

In Uganda, it is common for guards and private security to use guns in their operations.

The police spokesperson for Kampala City warned private security guards against taking the law into their own hands as happened during the incident.