Ideals in boda boda Bill do not translate into action

A scene of an accident involving a boda boda and a car along the Busia-Malaba road on January 30, 2016. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • It matters little whether the boda boda riders have helmets, reflective jackets, right documentation or even carry fewer passengers.

  • How they ride is what matters.

  • And if the mandarins who came up with the new regulations do not address this, all they will succeed in doing is give traffic policemen a new rent-seeking stream.

Reading through the Transport principal secretary’s article "New Regulations to make boda bodas safe",, one could not help but marvel at some of the ideas put forward in the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) Motorcycle Regulations 2015 to control the new menace in town: boda bodas.

It is comprehensive and addresses the rider, the owner and even the vendor. That’s commendable. The Bill espouses very many noble objectives and would go a long way in addressing and streamlining activities of this mode of transport, but only if implemented in full.

Most of the ideals in the Bill do not translate into any action on the ground. Our problem in Kenya, as has been stated countless times, is not lack of adequate laws to guide us in this and other sectors; our biggest problem is in implementation of existing ones.

Statistics available and quoted in the same article ought to galvanise the State to undertake a more radical implementation of the strategy.

In just seven months this year, 1,454 people have died, and 18 per cent of these fatalities can be squarely blamed on the boda bodas. The figures translate to about 300 boda boda deaths, almost 50 people dying per month or almost two Kenyans per day.

Let’s not sanitise this. Since NTSA’s inception, its target has been the ordinary motorist who toils the whole day and wishes to have a drink in the evening. As the agency revels in embarrassing this taxpayer in the full glare of television cameras, the carnage on our roads has continued unabated, and mostly out of towns.

INSTILLED DISCIPLINE

Fear of being embarrassed or even being arrested and charged has somewhat instilled some discipline and many Nairobians would rather drink at their local bar.

Back to the boda boda. The NTSA has to start by addressing who the expected implementers of these regulations are: should they be traffic marshals, county askaris or traffic policemen?

If these are the people entrusted with implementation, they ought to start by telling Kenyans why boda bodas have been given so much leeway in the country. Apart from contributing to the death toll, they have become a law unto themselves. Last weekend in Nakuru and Molo, the riders burnt two vehicles just because one of their own was involved in accidents, never mind who was in the wrong.

Why, for example, do boda bodas not wait at traffic lights like motorists? Who exempted them from traffic rules? Why are they at times allowed to ride on the wrong side, against traffic? Why are they allowed to ride on walkways, endangering pedestrians?

Their training and attitude towards other road users should concern the authorities more. But more than that, their areas of operation should be clearly demarcated and strictly enforced, with heavy penalties should they fail to observe them.

Decisions on this should be made and stuck to firmly and not made and changed the following day. For instance, the Nairobi governor gave a directive last year that no boda bodas would be allowed into the city centre, but in only a few days, they were back in full swing, with some operating a few metres from his office.

Nairobi as a metropolis needs to make up its mind whether it wants to be a modern city with well-regulated traffic and special bus lanes or a mess with hand-carts, trolleys and boda bodas battling with pedestrians for space. As it is now, most motorists spend an average of four hours a day in frustrating traffic gridlocks wondering where their tax money goes to.

So it matters little whether the boda boda riders have helmets, reflective jackets, right documentation or even carry fewer passengers. How they ride is what matters. And if the mandarins who came up with the new regulations do not address this, all they will succeed in doing is give traffic policemen a new rent-seeking stream.

Joe Mbuthia is production editor, 'Daily Nation'; [email protected].