Murang’a police intensify crackdown on boda-bodas as accident deaths mount
Members of the public help a boda-boda rider following an accident on Landhies Road in Nairobi. At least five boda-boda riders are killed in road accidents in Murang’a County every month.
At least five boda-boda riders are killed in road accidents in Murang’a County every month with authorities now blaming the alarming trend on reckless behaviour.
With law enforcement agencies recording at least four serious accidents daily, 90 per cent are said to be as a result of the recklessness of the riders and their passengers.
According to area traffic police boss Solomon Njuguna, in the accidents, you will find that the rider had three or four pillions who had no protective gear. In other cases, the majority of the victims were high on alcohol and narcotics.
“We have the most recent accident along the Gakoigo-Maragua road where 25-year-old Samuel Kariuki was the rider and his father, Augustus Marubu, 61, was among his three passengers. Father and son died instantly and the others are hospitalised with serious injuries,” he said.
Last month, five youths — all from one village — died in a grisly road accident at Makenji area as they rode on one motorcycle on the wrong side of the Thika Superhighway where they collided with a trailer.
Blessing and curse
Mr Njuguna dismissed it as escapist that “some of these accidents are as a result of witchcraft”, citing claims that “they saw naked old women crossing the road and, in trying to evade them, crashed.”
The police boss said the rate at which area youths are dying and suffering serious injuries is alarming, necessitating a crackdown on bodabodas contravening traffic rules on loading, roadworthiness, speed and general adherence to road etiquette.
“This sector came as a real blessing to our economy but the good returns are trashed by the recklessness exhibited by some in it. We have to tame the accidents.''
Mr Njuguna said the government, after realising that the sector had become an economic and health burden to the nation and many families, will move in and bring sanity.
“That is why we have ordered a crackdown on all bodaboda riders who carry excess passengers, speed and fail to observe basic traffic rules,” he said.
“We know they will cry that we are targeting them but they must know what it costs the economy and families in terms of money to treat the injured and bury the dead.''
