Legal loopholes are to blame for traffic congestion and obstructions caused by boda boda riders in the Central Business District.
Fred Achola, a senior clerk at the City Hall Magistrate Court, on Friday said no by-law bars the riders from operating in the city centre.
The Traffic Act of 2014 is silent on boda bodas.
This has undermined City Hall’s efforts to evict them and ensure order.
The Traffic Act gives county assemblies the power to enact by-laws to establish parking lots for the public service vehicles.
The Star has established that not a single rider has been charged in the city court for operating in the CBD, despite several arrests made by the county inspectorate officers.
Achola said, “You can see many motorbikes outside there. Their owners have never been charged in our courts. The by-laws we have do not bar them from operating anywhere in the city,” he said.
Achola said riders whose bikes are impounded only pay fines.
This explains City Hall’s failure to clear the boda bodas from the CBD.
Last week, Governor Evans Kidero said the riders are illegally operating in the CBD. He told them to thank him for being “lenient and soft on them”. It is not clear what illegality he was talking about.
In November 2015, the county banned the riders from the city centre, saying they had not been allocated parking space. It said they congested the downtown and obstructed traffic.
The riders protested against the ban and sued the city city. They lost, however, after they failed to prove their rights were violated.
Justice Joseph Onguto said the Constitution is clear about the county’s powers in regulating transport.
In February, Kidero ordered release of all impounded motorbikes on condition that the riders leave the CBD.
The 105 motorcycles had been lying at the county’s holding yard for more than three years.
They were impounded after their owners were arrested for traffic offences. Some riders took their bikes but refused to leave. This raised questions about the effectiveness of city enforcement officers.
“We advised them to be good citizens and keep off the Central Business District. There should be no parking and obstruction,” county secretary Robert Ayisi said in February.
The riders, through their chairman Ken Onyango, said they would comply with the directive and leave the city centre. This has yet to happen.
