For nearly five years, 57-year-old visually-impaired Abdul Lukenge has earned a living through repairing motor vehicle wiring in Kayunga Town, Kayunga District. Lukenge, a resident of Kayunga Central Ward, was not born blind but lost his sight at the age of 35, when he had already practiced his current profession for several years.
He had no physical disability and went about his work very well, with all the expertise and experience he had gathered over the years. However, in 2020, Mr Lukenge, who had earlier been diagnosed with diabetes, lost his sight, marking a turning point in his life. Attempts by health workers to help him regain his sight have so far proved futile. ‘When I lost my sight, at first I thought that was the end of my career because there was no way I could repair vehicles when I didn’t have vision,’ Lukenge says with a smile on his face.
He adds that shortly after, he stopped wallowing in self-pity and decided to continue with his job since he had colleagues he was working with in the garage who would offer support to him. ‘I already had the wiring mechanic knowledge, but the challenge I had was in seeing the wires and motor vehicle parts that required my attention,” he adds. Lukenge adds that coping was hard because he was a self-reliant man. For instance, requiring someone to escort him to the toilet whenever he wanted to ease, made life difficult.
‘I no longer had any private life,’ he says. ‘But later, I counselled myself and accepted that I had nothing to change what had befallen my life,’ he reminisces. With the help of fellow mechanics, Lukenge says he now goes about his work the same way he did before he lost his sight. ‘When a client brings a vehicle for repair, I ask them to first start it.
When I listen to the sound, I detect what needs to be repaired or replaced,’ he says. Sometimes, he only places his hand on the vehicle when its engine is running and he is able to diagnose the problem. ‘Motor vehicles have many wires in different colours. Each particular colour of the wires has a particular purpose and which part of the vehicle they go to.
A good motor vehicle wiring mechanic like me has to master these colours to be able diagnose the problem with a particular vehicle,’ Mr Lukenge reveals. He says when the problem is on the wires of the vehicle he tells his colleagues to assist him to touch on a particular colour of the wires and he carries on his work. A father of 11 children, Lukenge says he has regained trust among many of his clients, who initially thought he could no longer repair their vehicles as he used to do.
With their full trust, Lukenge is now always busy although he has to share the money he earns with his colleague who helps him at work. Mr Lukenge, who also works as a supervisor at the garage, says on a good day he can earn on average Shs30, 000, but adds that ‘on some bad days I don’t earn anything’. In a month, he says, on average he earns about Shs600,000. ‘Previously, during the late 1990s and early 2000, I used to earn more money from October to December because vehicle owners used to repair their vehicles in preparation for the festivities but now this is no longer the case,” Mr Lukenge says.
He rents the house where he resides at Shs150,000 a month and pays his househelp Shs90,000 a month. He had to hire a househelp because he doesn’t have a wife. She cooks and takes care of him at his two-roomed rented house.
‘I sometimes ask myself what I would be eating if I had not learnt this technical skill. But God is good,’ he says. Mr Vincent Matovu, one of Lukenge’s workmate, says he is being trained on the job by the latter whom he describes as a ”rare” person.
‘Clients bring him vehicles for him to repair from as far as Mukono and within a short time he is done with the work,’ Mr Matovu says. Mr Muhammad Ssendyose, the owner of Kyagera Motor Vehicle Garage, where Mr Lukenge works, says although he has many mechanics in his garage, it is Lukenge, who gets the biggest number of clients.
Despite his current condition, Lukenge says he has been given hope by opticians at Mengo Hospital, Kampala that he could regain his sight if he gets treatment. However, he does not have the Shs2.6 million required to begin his treatment. He appeals to well-wishers to come to his aid. Born in Masaka District in central Uganda, Lukenge, a school dropout, says he was learnt how to repair vehicles at a garage in 1984. He initially worked in a garage in Kibuye, a Kampala City suburb, before settling in Kayunga District.