Presidential intervention on boda bodas welcome and timely

Boda boda operators in Kitengela [Peteson Githaiga, Standard]

It is very easy to turn boda-boda operators into a political militia or an organised criminal gang.

A number of defence and security analysts have raised this issue with regulators in the transport sector and internal security players.

Motorcycles are cheap to acquire and operate; difficult to control; track and trace since they can use non-motorable paths (panya routes) to evade law enforcement.

Violent crimes such as murder; rape, robbery, kidnap for ransom, burglary, and theft rose exponentially in Kampala, Uganda when Boda Boda 2010 militia and their rivals Kifeesi criminal gangs began competing for territory and control between 2016 and 2018.

People could no longer carry cash to the bank. A hospital accountant was hijacked, burnt and UGSh15 million stolen in December 2017.

President Museveni took decisive action and deployed a joint military and police task force which broke the backbone of the two criminal gangs within three weeks and arrested all the ring leaders.

In Kenya, we have witnessed boda-boda gangs attacking and snatching phones from police officers.

Public order; safety and health in all cities and urban centres has been impacted by the proliferation of unregistered, unregulated, unlicensed and uncontrollable Nduthi riders.

Every neighbourhood has them, and nobody, including the police, can dare them.

They obey no law and fear no man. Women and children have borne the brunt of these miscreants.

The recent incident along Wangari Maathai Road where a hoard of motorcycle operators subjected a lone female motorist to a horrifying insult to the modesty of a woman has opened the eyes of Kenya’s top leadership to the daily indignation motorists are subjected to by boda-boda riders.

?In some counties, teenage pregnancies have risen sharply due to the defilement of underage school-going girls by motorcycle gangs.

No private motorist feels safe along the highways anymore due to boda-boda gangs who treat every traffic accident or incident as a communal affront to their territorial control.

Even the notorious matatu operators fear them.

The intervention by President Uhuru Kenyatta is timely. The gangs must be destroyed now.

Sometimes it takes a bad thing to spur positive action. Their unregistered associations and leaders must be brought to account.

The potential of abuse and misuse of players in the sub-sector by politicians during campaigns is palpable.

Violence by rival boda-boda militia would be impossible to control.

 

The mandatory helmet makes it very difficult if not impossible to identify and apprehend perpetrators of crime. NTSA and county governments must work together and deploy geo-tracking technology to identify; track and trace all boda-boda operators.

The tracking device is cheap and should be a prerequisite before registration and licensing.

Registered SACCOs can maintain data on their members in every neighbourhood.

The sector has the potential to grow in areas without motorable roads but it must be rid of the riff ruff and hoodlums who have taken advantage of the poor regulatory regime to engage in nefarious activities and crime.

-     Capt. Collins Wanderi is an advocate, defiance and security analyst