BY GAD WESONGA AND ISAAC WESONGA
Among the new words included in the 9th edition of the English Oxford Advanced Learners dictionary was ‘boda boda’ which is defined as a type of motorcycle or bicycle with a carrier for a passenger or for carrying goods, often used as a taxi. This term is reported to have its origin from the English word ‘border’ that was chorused by riders to attract clients at the border points of Busia Kenya and Uganda in the late 80s and early 90s.
The bodaboda means of transport was preferable at the busy border points due to its modest cost, convenience, flexibility and maneuverability compared to vehicle transportation. Reports indicate that boda bodas (riders) were popular and mostly useful in illicit business commonly referred to as magendo (smuggling) of goods and undocumented persons across the borders using unmanned routes to avoid detection and taxation.
The use of bodaboda transport system soon spread beyond the Busia border points when it became apparent that bicycles could as well be useful beyond border activities especially in the rural areas that had poor road infrastructures. Bicycle users who previously provided free rides started charging for their services. Other entrepreneurs saw opportunities and quickly invested in the boda boda businesses.
In 2001, the bodaboda industry received a huge catalyst when then Busia born Nambale MP and Minister for Finance Chris Okemo exempted the purchase of bicycles from taxation. This cost reduction in bicycle acquisition provided an opportunity for many hitherto unemployed individuals especially the youth to turn to bodaboda as an immediate occupation and source of livelihood.
When the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) government came to power in 2002, a raft of policies were put in place so as to create a better environment and spur economic progression. It is during this period that then Finance Minister Amos Kimunya zero rated duty on unassembled bicycle imported by local assemblers and reduced duty on motorbikes from 25% to 10% in the 2006/7 financial budget. This move motorized and revolutionized the bodaboda industry with motorbikes quickly replacing the manual bicycles. Bodaboda means of transport became even more convenient and popular.
As the new industry left the border points for the rest of the country, it appears it did not leave behind tags and labels of mischief, deviance and lawlessness that were associated with it at the border points. The magendo spirit and mentality seems to have stubbornly stuck to date such that while some view the industry as an economic driver through massive creation of employment, business opportunities, versatile savior in times of emergency and convenience such as dogging traffic jams, accessing difficult terrains and a useful political asset for exploitation during electioneering seasons, others see bodaboda simply as a menace.
According to the 2018 National Crime Research Centre (NCRC) report titled Boda Boda Motorcycle Transport and Security Challenges in Kenya, the sector is characterized with vices and crimes. These include causing death by dangerous riding, stealing, creating disturbance, assault, robbery with violence and riding under influence of alcohol. Other transgressions associated with the industry include possession and usage of dangerous drugs, handling and trafficking drugs, motorcycle hijackings, fraud, forgery, handling stolen property, burglary, murder, kidnapping, abduction, bribery, defilement and their traditional signature illegality of smuggling of goods and people across restricted boundaries such as witnessed during recent movement cessation across certain counties as a measure to curb the spread of Covid-19 when bodabodas are reported to have actively facilitated people to bypass various police roadblocks using unmanned routes.
Despite the challenges, it is apparent that boda bodas are a popular means of transport in both rural and urban areas. This popularity is however diluted by public safety and decorum concerns associated with the industry stakeholders especially the rider’s behaviors and culture. Complaints of criminals on motorcycles attacking people are common occurrences. As such, the boda boda industry is viewed as a dreadful outfit across the country that has a penchant for lawlessness and no regard for anyone. For instance, on October 26, 2020, while mourning one Mr. Stephen Ngotho, a 75-year-old man who was killed by a boda boda rider along the Kutus-Kagio road, Kenya’s retired Chief of Defense Forces General Julius Karangi underlined the deadly threat posed by bodabodas operators.
In his account, he went through a harrowing experience with the riders when he got involved in an accident in Nyeri. During the incident, the retired general was driving home when a rider hit the rear of his vehicle. When he stepped out of the car to assess the damage, hundreds of bodaboda riders pounced and besieged his car, threatening to lynch him yet he was the one aggrieved. The retired General lamented that they did not even bother to understand what transpired. The marauding riders only fled on recognizing him when he timely lowered his mask. Narrating the ordeal, General Karangi decried the need to bring order to the industry so as to mitigate the impunity synonymous with it.
Recommendations
In the NCRC report, this volatile situation is largely attributed to minimal regulations and controls for governing the operations of the boda boda sector. To aggravate the situation, the industry is dominated by youthful individuals with low education, social economic standing and without requisite professional training. These factors paint a picture of a vulnerable sector that poses great risks to public safety and a serious threat to national security since it provides incentives for juvenile, experimental, risk-taking and recklessness among operators.
The report therefore recommended for an urgent need to develop and implement policies to regulate and manage the industry with several proposals including mandatory registration of all boda boda operators countrywide. During registration, the applicant must have undergone formal motorcycle rider training; acquired riders/drivers license; certificate of good conduct and have PPE such as helmet; reflector jackets for self and passenger.
Additionally, the operators to be authorized by NTSA/TLB only after joining a SACCO or a boda boda association akin to what has happens in the Matatu industry so as to distinguish them from motorcycle for courier services, personal or private use. These associations would play a critical role in self-regulation and also being a consultative and linkage forum for membership engagement with various stakeholders including the Government.
Kevin Mubadi
The concept of Boda boda organization, regulation and sanitization seems to have been a concern by the practitioners themselves from as early as 2014 when an ambitious young man from Busia, the cradle land of Boda boda industry, Kevin Mubadi, decided to start a countrywide association that would bring together riders and champion their welfare. He began by seeking approval of the Inspector General of Police and the Ministry of Transport to establish such an outfit. Sadly, Kevin was confronted with myriad roadblocks on a long winding and torturous journey until 2016 when the Boda Boda Safety Association was registered with him as the national Chairman.
Kevin acknowledges that he would have given up were it not for his tough and uncertain background that grounded him for such an arduous task. The association is currently estimated to have membership of about 1.4 million spread in all counties in Kenya. It has attracted the support of many stakeholders including the Government and has been very active in activities geared towards the welfare of the bodaboda industry such as training on safety and security, health issues and economic empowerment. It is in this regard that the association played host to President Uhuru Kenyatta on October 23, 2020 to launch a Boda Boda Investment scheme at Pumwani Social Hall.
During the event, the President pledged to support the sector’s investment scheme and urged the operators to take advantage of their numerical strength to build their own lives and secure their future. According to the Head of State, the sector generates approximately Sh357b annually, more than what the national government disburses to the counties.
Under the scheme, riders will register to the Fund using their biometric data and will be expected to contribute Sh50 daily. They will also get a fuel card from Rubis Energy which they will use at over 310 fuelling stations across the country and enjoy a Sh3 deduction at the fuel pump which will also go to the fund. Operators will also get Sh10 discount per Kilogram of cooking gas as well as a Sh15 discount on motorcycle engine oil which will in turn be channeled to the trust Fund. Nabo Capital, a subsidiary of Centum Investment Company will manage the funds in the Collective Investment Scheme (CIS) for the boda boda riders. The scheme will begin by enrolling 100 riders from each of the 47 counties and gradually build to accommodate all.
When Kevin Mubadi left Ganjala Secondary School due to lack of school fees at form three in 2007, the then principal, Mr Tom Malo could only say “just go home but God knows”. Since then, these words keep reverberating in his mind when faced with challenging moments and for him, his life has been defined by such times more than anything else. One such moment happened as he tensely waited to receive President Uhuru Kenyatta at the launch of Boda Boda Investment scheme on October 23, 2020 at Pumwani Social Hall.
On this day, as the National Chairman of the Boda Boda Safety Association of Kenya (BAK), Kevin, the host to the President stood to wait for the head of state. During this period, he was overwhelmed with a mixture of feelings; gratitude, disbelief and immense anxiety loaded on his young mind and shoulders. As his former Principal foretold, God knew his situation and responded when he provided help through Hon. Wavinya Ndeti who moved closer, tapped on his trembling shoulders and reassured him that all will be fine.
“This gave me confidence that I was not alone”, recalls Kevin during this interview in his state funded red carpeted office on 13th Floor of Bruce House, a radical contrast to his former life as a homeless street beggar, office messenger, boda boda rider and later unwanted young man trying to register and organize the volatile, crime prone and chaotic boda industry in Kenya.
Later, as the President presided over the function, Kevin felt that his dreams and efforts of many years were finally getting closer to fruition. As a young man growing up under the sole care of his grandmother, Cyrila Nafula Wekhuyi in the remote village of Ganjala in Busia County, Kevin had big dreams of one day meeting the President of Kenya. Here he was realizing this childhood dreams of not just meeting him, but hosting him on behalf of the 1.4-million boda boda members in Kenya.
As a boda boda rider who was once knocked down by a hit and run truck in 2014, he would later lose his dear bike to thieves when he left it in the parking and walked into a supermarket within the Nairobi CBD. When he sought for compensation since his bike was under a comprehensive insurance cover, Kevin only got Sh40, 000 instead of Sh90, 000 after lengthy struggle. This money could not afford another bike.
The idea to have an outfit that would address the many challenges facing bodaboda operators like the ones he had just gone through got entrenched. “I wrote to Inspector General of Police and the Ministry of Transport seeking a no objection letter from them”, he says, adding that he did not get feedback but followed up later only to be told that he should go to Sheria house instead. This culminated in a series of numerous visits to various government offices where no one was apparently interested in his bizarre narrative such that someone at Sheria house for instance advised him to try and just register a small one for a county and not a national one as per his ambitious vision. The registration journey ran from 2014 to 2016 when he finally got a certificate from NTSA “I continued to conduct recruitment during the two years”, he says. “Things were tough, I could go without food, had no transport and sometimes depended on lifts for the exercise”, remembers Kevin.
He recollects that things started changing when he got involved in mobilization of all county bodaboda chairmen for a function at Laico hotel in 2016 to address such issues as why riders are involved in domestic violence. The event was organized by then PS for Gender Zainab Hussein and graced by CS Cecily Kariuki. “It is at this point that several organizations that had earlier ignored us started listening to us after seeing us at the function. Things started moving.” he narrates.
Born on October 28, 1988, Kevin says he was single handedly brought up by his maternal grandmother. “I have never known my father and when I asked my mother, she started sobbing so I will never revisit the subject again” he confides. He says that his mother had left home in 1998 and resurfaced in 2011. The future national Chairman of the Bodada Association found himself in the tough Nairobi streets after running away from biting poverty in Busia.
He had earlier dropped from Ganjala Secondary School in 2007 due to school fees. “I joined Ganjala Secondary in form 1 in 2005 with KES 3000 only from which the bursar deducted KES 200 for the school tie and left me with KES 2800 for school fees. That is the only money I ever paid in that school until the principal asked me to leave at form 3”, he recounts. At this desperate point, Kevin, the newest school dropout in the village became a manual laborer.
He later got a job in the nearby Matayos shopping centre at a cyber cafe where he self taught computers. A year later, after saving Sh8, 000, he travelled to Bungoma and walked into Friends School Misikhu, gave the principal, Mr Manyonge all the money he had and explained his vulnerable situation to him. It is at this point that he got enrolled in form three again and was able to do for his KCSE in 2009.
Thereafter, he headed back home to Ganjala and then to Busia town in search of employment. The search led him to Rosana hotel where got employed as a cashier. It is here that he met a Good Samaritan; Mr Majani who called his former Principal at Friends School Misikhu and cleared his fee balance after the young man told him his tribulations.
Armed with the school certificates, he made a daring step to move to Nairobi without invitation. This bold and adventurous step led him to very hard, miserable introduction to Nairobi street life. Kevin says that he thought he had escaped poverty back at home only to land in the precarious situation that borders on death. “I had to pay for everything including wet open spaces to spend the night, “he remembers.
Despondency notwithstanding, Kevin remained optimistic and prayerful as he kept knocking on as many office doors as possible looking for employment. Within a few months, his prayers were answered when he got hired as an office messenger at an IT company on Vinodeep Towers along Baricho road. It is while working here that he got reconnected with his childhood friend on face book, Nixon Mubadi who took him away from cold streets and hosted him.
A year later, Kevin launched his bodaboda career when he bought a motorcycle, started a delivery service business and quit his job as a messenger. A few weeks later, the motorbike was stolen as he shopped in a supermarket along Harambee Avenue rendering him jobless again. He says that he was so confused and helpless due to this incident. The unfortunate turn of events however birthed the idea of an association to address the welfare of riders.
On sharing with other riders, they realized that they had shared predicaments in the bodaboda transport industry. According to Kevin, some of the challenges include lack of driving licenses and road safety skills since most riders are too poor to afford the high cost of a driving license or training before joining the industry. Their knowledge on road safety is also limited which leads to high rate of accidents.
Furthermore, most riders are not compensated during an accident or after a motorbike theft and yet they had paid all their premiums. This returns them to poverty as most bikes are acquired on loan. Many riders, he says, die in the hands of robbers interested in their bikes. This leaves their families in more trouble if the bike loan is still active. The BAK founder chairman decries lack of sufficient designated areas for sheltering the operators, which exposes them to health risks since many spend long periods exposed to harsh weather conditions.
The chairman also points out that riders face harassment from law enforcers such as Police and county Askaris who according to him sometimes arrest them with no valid reasons. He says that that the association under his chairmanship is therefore tasked to progressively address these issues in conjunction with willing stakeholders. For instance, the National Youth Service has patterned with them to provide road safety trainings to reduce road accidents and induce discipline on road usage. The association will also work with relevant well wishers to provide safety gears. He adds that the association will hire its own legal services to protect its members from abuse of their rights during accidents and also follow up on insurance compensations.
Kevin is supported in the running of the outfit by other county chairmen across the 47 counties. The association hopes to one day own an office tower in the city as one of its investments. He is very grateful to Cabinet Secretaries Joe Mucheru, Fred Matiangi and President Kenyatta for the support provided towards their welfare in the BodaBoda transport industry. He lauds the launching of Bodaboda Information Management System in partnership with the Ministry of Interior, which he believes will help clean up the chaotic industry.
“We realized that there are people who specifically buy a motorbike for criminal activities. Some bikes are stolen and taken to new locations where they are used for criminal activity so we need to have a cleanup and rebrand”, he says. He is profusely grateful of the state funded office on 13th floor of Bruce House within the CBD that has now made his operations to sanitize the bodaboda transport industry more efficient.
It appears that significant milestones in the evolution and development of bodaboda industry in Kenya continue to find its way back to its roots; Busia. As the founder Chairman of Bodaboda Safety Association, Kevin Mubadi finds himself with the daunting task of exorcising the magendo ghosts that crept all the way from the Busia border to the rest of the country and now plagues the Bodaboda industry. It is in the hands of this 32 year old man of steel that Kenyans hope will assist the Government in sanitization of an industry that is currently synonymous with negativity. Indeed, the best way to predict your future is to create it and Kevin is a man on a mission to create sanity in the quagmire that is in bodaboda transportation.
