Beast of Forest Road: Boda boda fugitive on the run

Zachary Nyaoga Obadia, the boda boda operator who has been identified by police as the mastermind of a gang that sexually harassed a diplomat leading to a nationwide crackdown by the state on the sector, was on the run last evening as detectives intensified his manhunt, deploying teams across the city and to his rural home in Kisii.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has Obadia at the scene of crime, and a Nation analysis of the short but scandalous video footage showing the attack on the woman shows a man with a striking resemblance of him yanking open the door to the motorist’s Nissan X-Trail and groping her.

Forensic analysis of the incident on Friday afternoon along Prof Wangari Maathai Road, formerly Forest Road, shows he was there at the time of the attack, even though he is registered to a boda boda association that operates from Hazina.

As the furore over the incident continued into the second day, Zimbabwean President Emerson Mnagangwa flew in on a state visit and met with President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House. 

It was not clearly with the diplomat’s harassment formed part of the deliberations between the two, but the Nation understands that the government is under pressure from countries that have missions here to deal with the boda boda menace before it snowballs into a threat to national security. 

Two weeks ago, an Egyptian diplomat was shot dead by two men on a motorcycle in the Kilimani neighbourhood of the city, and there have been a slew of petty as well as serious crimes involving motorcycle riders across the city and the country.

Yesterday morning, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said he had received calls “from across the globe from people who are wondering what is going on in the country”, then posed: “When did we become animals?” 

Last evening the DCI, which is currently treating Nyaoga as one of the most wanted persons in Kenya now, was assembling a crack team of detectives to hunt him down. 

Traumatising incident

The directorate’s head, Mr George Kinoti, assured that it won’t be long before the suspect is arrested and charged. Nyaoga switched off his mobile phone on Monday after being informed that police officers were looking for him. 

“We are all appalled and traumatised by this incident,” Mr Kinoti told the Nation. 

“It was scary. Enough is enough about these goons hiding behind legitimate motorcycle transport business. He is on the run but he won’t hide or go anywhere that we can’t get him.”

At Mukuru Kayaba, the dusty sprawl sandwiched between South B estate and Industrial Area, detectives searched for clues on Nyaoga’s whereabouts the whole day yesterday after he escaped their dragnet via a sewer duct on Tuesday afternoon.

At the Hazina bus stop, the parking shed where Nyaoga operated from was deserted as his fellow riders stayed away to avoid arrest. 

There were no motorcycles in sight in South B, Mukuru Kayaba and Mukuru kwa Njenga at the time the Nation team visited the area. 

A visibly angry President Kenyatta ordered a crackdown on the sector on Tuesday, warning that “the government would not be seen as being complicit with the criminal elements hiding in the sector”.

With no boda bodas in sight, the only sign of Nyaoga’s existence, or that of the Nairobi South Boda Boda Association, which has taken the worst hit of the crackdown after all its motorcycles were confiscated by the police, was a shed that sells smokies and boiled eggs. It belongs to the suspect. 

His wife disappeared into the sprawl on seeing us, a bunch of strangers, approaching the shed.

Surrounded victim’s car

At Kisii Village in the slum, however, residents said Nyaoga, a father of two, was just an ordinary boda boda rider who was caught at the wrong place at the wrong time.

“He left here on Friday after receiving a mobile app request to take a parcel to Westlands, then on the way back, from what I have heard, he found a commotion following an accident,” Nyaboga Sokoro, chair Nairobi South Boda Boda Association, told us. 

“He is a very nice guy; just ask everyone around here. You know riders have to be there for each other whenever one of us gets into an accident. I think that is how he found himself there.”

Peter Nyaoga, a close relative of the suspect, confirmed that the shirt that he was wearing when he left is the same one worn by the violent man seen attacking the woman in the viral video.

“I had just come from Kisii that day and, before he left, I saw him tie some luggage on the back of his motorcycle,” said Peter. “He then told me to watch out for his boda boda since he needed to go to the house and put on a jacket. It was about noon.” 

In the video, which we have reviewed again following our trip to Mukuru, the suspect is the man in spectacles wearing  a dark green half jacket and red T-shirt. He is seen opening the door to the victim’s car and forcing her out.

According to his fellow riders at the Nairobi South Boda Boda Association, the suspect was just part of the mob that had surrounded the victim’s car. They have nevertheless apologised to the victim, her family and all women.

“We have accepted that something wrong happened and., if we find criminals among us, we will hand them over to the police. It is sad that just a few people have messed up an entire industry,” said Anthony Meja. 

Daniel Onduko added: “Our families are sleeping hungry. We should sit down and discuss this in order to make sure it does not happen again.”

The boda boda industry employs at least 1.4 million young people who generate Sh6.8 billion a week, according to government records.

Yesterday, it was dead for the second day running. Cornered and reeling in losses after operating like a gang of criminals that had been left to spin out of control, the few boda boda riders from courier services who are allowed on the road were seen with stickers proclaiming “WE ARE SORRY” on their backs.

Whether the current crackdown will finally bring sanity to a sector that is currently the highest contributor of accidents and crime, while also being the most attractive segment of society for politicians, is hard to tell. 

For now, however, the number one priority for the DCI is to arrest Zachary Nyaoga Obadia, whom the directorate says started the chaos that has made the state decide that it is time to deal with the sector once and for all.

According to the National Crime Research Centre, the most prevalent boda boda offences are causing death by dangerous riding at 79 per cent, stealing (76 per cent), breach of public order and creating disturbance (66 per cent), robbery with violence (52 per cent) and possession dangerous drugs (49 per cent).

Other crimes committed by boda bodas are drug trafficking (42 per cent), murder (38 per cent), kidnapping (26 per cent), defilement (17 per cent), cross border smuggling of goods (15 per cent) and handling stolen property at 12 per cent.

[email protected]