Devolution should unlock value and connect people, like a motorbike

I was recently up at the village visiting for a family ceremony, and, not for the first time, I noticed all the activity on what used to be a very quiet rural road.

Whereas once, you’d hear a car climbing from faraway through the slowly disappearing forest, and go and wait for it to pass, you now have a vehicle passing, almost every minute, and it’s not just any vehicle, but a motorcycle. 

Motorcycles here carry everything. You’ll see one passing with a beer keg, then one with the just the rider, then another with a passenger and two sacks of potatoes, or maize.

The next one will have two milk coolers and the next four adults and you’re shocked. Then a few minutes later you see another with 5 people! Adults, mind you, not school children.

READ: DEVOLUTION CORNER: Narok upbeat as it seeks to develop leather industry

READ: CHEESEMAN: While devolution may work, is it sustainable?

READ: THE WAG: Devolved health care is killing more people, not saving lives

You can tell the produce an area grows from what you see on motorbikes.

Motorbikes, and to a lesser extent, the Toyota Probox, have driven matatus and buses out of business in many rural areas. When I was child I’d sometimes take one matatu here.

Those were the vehicles in which passengers would sit facing each other seven-a-side (not rugby sevens), and wait for more passengers to fill up.

The matatu would only leave not just all seats were full, but also after it was crammed with standing passengers and sacks and trays of local produce. You would sometimes wait for an hour for the vehicle to fill before it started its journey.

But that’s all in the past as now, with a phone, you can summon a bike or jump onto a passing one. Motorbikes go from point to point and are faster than cars.

Indeed, only a car rally driver can keep up with a motorbike on a dirt rural road as the bikes are able to navigate narrow smooth parts of the road, while a car has to drive around all the uneven surfaces.  

Motorbikes have mastered the last mile and are used by almost everyone in the small scale business, for deliveries, by repair people, mechanics, veterinary doctors, as ambulances, to carry petrol to kiosks, and more.

They create employment, opportunities, have lower fuel costs, and use the same infrastructure while being less damaging. There are bad roads all around the country, but motorbikes are less affected by these.  Their Achilles heel seems to be rain, water, and mud. 

'DEVOLUTION IS A BAJAJ'

Motorcycles handle small deliveries well but they are no match for high-capacity lorries, buses or other large vehicles. And nor should they be.

Devolution should be like a motorbike, with its small-scale ability, quick decision-making, and need for little funding, while also running on the same infrastructure.

Devolution is a Sh70,000 Bajaj motorcycle, a machine that unlocks economic value, and connects people to larger markets and opportunities, regardless of their surrounding infrastructure – like taking sacks of coffee or milk cans to rural markets or factories.

It’s not meant to be a Sh1.3 million BMW 1200 or a Sh2.5 million Ducati 1299 Panigale S (Ramah Nyang says these are some of the world's top bikes now) that some governors are trying to build and replicate the national government, as it were.

Bikes have grown in an unregulated way, and transport authorities like the NTSA are playing catch-up with rules, such as mandating helmets and safety jackets, but they are not complete.

The insurance sector has a minimum charge for motorbike insurance, regardless of the age or value of the bike, which means that many riders and owners don’t insure their bikes. Motorcycles now also form a growing share of the casualties at many hospitals.

Yet the planning for both devolutions and motorbikes is still being done far away in Nairobi despite the realities far away on the ground.

The transport authorities plan to increase the size of PSV vehicles despite their being rendered extinct by motorbikes.  Also, while Nairobi police have motorbikes, I’m yet to see rural police who have them instead of the very capable Land Cruiser.

Twitter: @bankelele