Urgently tame boda boda culture lest it eat us all up

The benefits of boda boda to the economy over the past decade are all too obvious. Motorcyclists provide swift yet affordable transportation with the industry creating thousands of jobs and becoming a vital source of livelihood.

But riders have become a plague that the government must expeditiously deal with. Kenyans are no longer sure how to protect themselves from the mobs. There are fears that the ugly side of boda bodas is fast eclipsing their usefulness as criminals and errant riders increasingly use them to wreak mafia-like havoc with impunity.

Besides their involvement in drive-by shootings and being at the centre of the raging robbery and kidnap wave, riders also unleash anarchy on the roads.

Fatal accidents

Many have caused fatal accidents due to their recklessness as riding dangerously on sidewalks and into oncoming traffic has become the norm. While weaving through traffic they insult or, worse, beat up motorists and torch vehicles when corrected.

Last year, former Chief of Defence Forces, General (Rtd) Julius Karangi, had a nasty altercation with boda boda mobs. A boda boda rider hit the vehicle he was driving. Within moments, tens of riders had arrived at the scene, hooting and threating to lynch him. While they dispersed after one of them recognised him, the incident laid bare the vulnerability of ordinary Kenyans to these bloodthirsty gangs.

A boda boda ride has become a matter of life and death — literally. In 2018, they killed 3,877 people and injured many more. But it is with regard to crime that boda bodas have gone out of control.

Crime

A National Crime Research Centre report released in March shows that in 2018 alone, riders were involved in 1,884 cases of murder, robbery and robbery with violence (2,578), assault (2,778), riding under influence of alcohol (2,570), possession and usage of dangerous drugs (2,415), handling and trafficking in dangerous drugs (2,053 ) and 3,227 motorcycles and motorcycle parts were stolen.

More worryingly, the tiffs between riders and motorists are turning into a class war of the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. This is a dangerous culture developing, especially as the 2022 General Election approaches.

The government has admitted as much. Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho said rogue riders, apart from “being enablers of crime”, are “a menace to security and must be reined in at all costs if we intend to have peaceful pre- and post-election”.

In March 2019, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i formed the Boda Boda Task Force to gather data regarding the safety, reliability, cost and other matters of interest to stakeholders. But what NTSA has done with the findings is yet to be seen.

On several occasions, President Uhuru Kenyatta has cautioned the riders against being misused and challenged them to work hard to prosper. The sector earns Sh357 billion annually, he noted.

There is, therefore, an urgent need of a policy framework to register, regulate, monitor and govern this important socioeconomic sector.

Mr Kinja is a social analyst and political commentator. [email protected].