Taming the bodaboda menace

Kenyans have a notoriously low threshold for indignation and are easily bored by constant reminders that they are inexorably losing their humanity, and I was therefore wary about tackling a subject that has been on their minds all week.

However, I could not help it when I read somewhere that the government last Friday staged, and filmed, an elaborate assault on a young lady diplomat by a horde of bodaboda riders on the eve of the International Women’s Day celebrations just to show the world that it actually cares for women. The fact that this gem came from a highly educated woman made the “revelation” even more poignant.

Apparently, social media has succeeded in dumbing down even the brightest among us. As a conspiracy theory, it beats the most outrageous I have heard so far, and its originator deserves international recognition. An even more convoluted theory was propounded by yet another to the effect that the assault was a scheme by people in high office to boost their own businesses.

What is disturbing is that these extraordinary theories were fronted by fellow women, one of them an academic, the other a politician, which left a bad taste in the mouth especially as there was no empathy whatsoever for the victim – not even a half-hearted condemnation of the dastardly act. But perhaps that is to be expected of individuals who have never had to be ferried from one place to the other on a motorcycle, and who have not been accosted by weaklings who take their bikes as some sort of priapic symbols that prove their masculinity.

Boda boda menace

There is no doubt that one way or the other, we as a country should find ways to tame the growing boda boda menace. The crackdown order by the President should only be the beginning; the trick is in sustaining it until the industry is so well-regulated that there is no danger of those compliant being caught in the dragnet. It is a pity that too often, those charged with implementing the law fail to do so because they benefit from its haphazard application.

But one thing must be clear; the boda boda sector is so important to the economy right now that it cannot be wished away. These vehicles have so dominated the transport sector that one wonders how people ever moved from one place to the other without them. Their advent can only be compared to the arrival of the cellphone; today it is difficult to fathom how people ever communicated without the gadgets.

Maybe in the no-too-distant future, the humble motorcycle will become obsolete once it is replaced by the electric car, but in the meantime, the vast majority of Kenyans will continue depending on it for cheap transport, which is why the only way to rid the sector of renegades who seem to be in control right now is to regulate it and ensure total compliance. This won’t be easy if corruption, which has always thwarted well-intended traffic rules, is not tamed as well.

Unruly behaviour

There is no denying that the two-wheeled vehicle is a job-creator of great significance especially among youths. But that should not be enough reason for the authorities to ignore the danger inherent in ignoring the lawlessness. In the process, we must recognise that two things have already happened. Of late, the boda boda riders have been conditioned by politicians to believe they are members of a frustrated underclass, the so-called hustlers.

When a section of politicians came up with the narrative that they are the champions of the dispossessed, they were sowing the seeds of potential class warfare. After all, if you only own a motorcycle, everyone who drives a car is the enemy and an accident involving the two vehicles can only be the fault of the car owner, never mind the truth, which is why the bikers gang up to vent their frustrations on car-owners and seemingly relish destroying this symbol of “opulence”. The mass hysteria is usually motivated by envy.

Secondly, because the economy has been doing rather poorly, the riders see no reason to obey the law. This is a serious development because policing people riding motorcycles is a difficult task. These machines are not only nimble, they can penetrate areas that bigger vehicles cannot, especially the alleys and by-ways in urban areas. The result is that there is a great danger of these folks banding to create motorcycle gangs whose major preoccupation is to commit crime and zoom off.

It has happened in countries far developed than ours, and their law-keepers can testify just how difficult it is to identify helmeted riders bent on havoc. The point is that if this unruly behaviour is not nipped in the bud, there is no reason why boda boda riders won’t gang up some day and make huge swathes of the country ungovernable. A story goes of how these fellows recently closed Kiambu Road to other users for a long period because they were escorting one of their own for his burial. If they can get away with that, then everyone else is in big trouble. 

Mr Ngwiri is a consultant editor; [email protected]