Address boda boda crisis from multiple dimensions

A report titled “Fare price: An investigation into the health costs of motor cycle taxi crashes in Kenya” noted that five roads in Nairobi accounted for 9,996 accidents involving boda bodas and their clients between May 2022 and October 2023.

Out of the 9,996 cases, 2,384 boda boda riders and their passengers lost their lives, 5,581 suffered serious injuries and 2,031 escaped with minor injuries.

There is need to institute lasting and impactful changes to the boda boda sub-sector because it plays an important role as part of greater informal sector economy that thrives because of factors like high population growth rates without corresponding jobs, unemployment, underemployment, poverty, gender inequality, precarious work conditions and challenges associated with public transport.

The development of the sub-sector has taken the same trajectory as the matatu sector in the 1960s and 70s that necessitated government intervention through appropriate laws, though there was resistance just as is happening with intervention in the boda boda sub-sector.

The boda boda sub-sector plays an important role in income generation because of the ease of entry and exit. It has low entry requirements for education, skills, technology and capital, factors which have prevented the boda boda riders from joining other jobs. Many people join the sub-sector to survive and access basic income through which they can sustain themselves.

According to the report recently published by Car and General, the boda boda sub-sector has created over one million jobs where riders earn one billion shillings a day. The report shows that the sector supports six million livelihoods indirectly, which implies that it supports almost 12.5 per cent of the Kenyan population.

It also shows that the sector contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 3.4 per cent which is almost catching up with the education sector, which contributes 3.8 per cent of GDP. Despite the much importance placed to the boda boda sub-sector, it is prone to some negative aspects, according to the 2018 National Crime Research Centre. This calls for effective management, regulation, and licensing.

Going forward, there is need for comprehensive reforms in the sub-sector that addresses multiple fronts. One, organise the riders into recognisable, easily verifiable, and identifiable groups/saccos so that the bad elements are easily nabbed, and corrective action taken. This organisation will make the sub-sector lucrative, enable individual savings and wealth creation. Second, ensure adequate laws and regulations to govern the sub-sector. Third, ensure adequate sensitisation, education and awareness creation on the role of the sub-sector in employment creation (it’s a job like others) and need to be patriotic and decent.

- Dr Giti, PhD, is an urban management, public-private partnerships (PPP) and environment specialist. [email protected]. @danielgiti