When Ugandan’s National Environment Management Authority (Nema) announced last month that starting April 1 anyone found driving a car without a dustbin would be fined $1,600, many motorists thought the authority had decided to deliver this year’s Fools Day joke in advance. After all, that is the market price of a typical car on Uganda’s roads, with chances of its being older than its driver, and the fine is enough to buy another one.
Many motorists probably thought that come the deadline Saturday, smiling cops would stop them, ask for the dustbin and, as they started panicking, the cop would hand them a Happy Fools Day card in form of a leaflet, urging them to protect the environment and avoid littering.
