Ugandan police fight taxi lynch mob

Boda-boda can be either motorbikes or cycles

Ugandan police have fired machine guns to disperse a rampaging lynch mob of 300 motorbike taxi riders.

The operators of the "Boda-boda" taxis were trying to mete out their own justice on four men accused of killing one of their colleagues in the Nakulabaye suburb of the capital, Kampala.

Three men were hit by stray bullets and dozens of police and civilians were injured, according to the New Vision newspaper.

The BBC's Siraj Kaliango says that there are often clashes between boda-boda riders and the police.

Beat traffic

New Vision reports that boda-boda riders from across Kampala converged on Nakulabaye throwing stones, blocks and pieces of metal at police officers, who responded by firing sub-machine guns on Thursday morning.

The suspects were almost captured by the lynch mob, before being driven off in a police car under a hail of stones, the paper reports.

Sometimes boda-boda riders fight each other for passengers

Old Kampala Police Station Officer-in-Charge Godfrey Ngobi said it was a "serious" attack, which had left police officers with "grievous" injuries.

Last year, there was violence in the eastern town of Jinja after new taxes were introduced on boda-boda operators.

Motorbike or even cycle taxis are the most common form of public transport in Kampala as they are much cheaper than cars or buses and can get through traffic jams more quickly.

Our correspondent says that sometimes boda-boda riders take two passengers, meaning three people have to balance precariously on a single bike.