Arua teenager drives bus and is arrested!

It’s exactly one year today that a one Andama Juma alias Biebie, a 19-year-old teenage boy drove a Nile Star bus off the yard on Adumi road opposite Pacific Hotel in Arua Central Division with six passengers to Odia trading centre on Kampala highway and back to Paps fuel station in Awindiri Ward where he was arrested and beaten to pulp.

Thereafter, he was brought to Arua Central Police Station, incarcerated for days before being arraigned at Arua High Court where he was charged with theft of a bus and driving without a license or a permit.

He was thereafter transferred to Arua Government Prison for remand.

Then on December 2, 2019,  someone wrote a post on his timeline about the fate of Andama Juma which caught the attention of Ms Ajonye Ayume, a Ugandan- American nurse in Seattle, USA and she gave him a call on how this boy can be helped.

She was told to send some dollars in order to initiate the services of a lawyer to secure the freedom of Andama.

On February 15, 2020, the boy was secured from prison and sent him home for rehabilitation. Thereafter he was enrolled for a driving course at Prestige Driving School behind Equity Bank.

He begun the training but quickly became an instructor as he was more knowledgeable than the regular staff of the school.

Immediately, Covid-19 struck the country and on March 18,2020 , the president announced a lockdown delaying the finishing of the course by Andama.

Last month the boy was taken to Face Technology, a South African company based at the Ministry of Works offices on Ediofe road for the renewal of his temporary driving license.

He was given two weeks awaiting the readiness of his driving permit.

Andama has since the last two weeks acquired a valid driving permit of the republic of Uganda enabling him to secure employment as a driver driving a Fuso lorry to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and back.

He is now gainfully employed and planning to put up a house and eventually establish a family and be a responsible citizen. The entire legal and training process cost close to sh3,000,000!