Boda Boda operators reject motorcycle regulation bill

BODA BODA operators have rejected new regulations warning that if passed, it will push millions of families deeper into poverty and bring chaos int their operations.

They described the proposed Public Transport ,  (Motorcycle Regulation) Bill (Senate Bill No. 38 of 2023) as "retrogressive, punitive and disconnected from the realities of daily survival for thousands of young men and women who earn their living one trip at a time".

Appearing before the Parliamentary Departmental Committee on Transport and Infrastructure, the Boda Boda Safety Association of Kenya (BAK) flatly rejected  the Bill sponsored by Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale.

“This Bill does not bring safety, it brings suffering. It does not protect livelihoods, it threatens to wipe them out,” said BAK president Kevin Mubadi, calling the proposed law a deliberate attempt to criminalise and commodify poverty.

At the heart of the association’s objections are the mounting costs and complicated bureaucracy that the Bill seeks to impose on riders who are already living hand to mouth, amid loans especially in asset financing.

Among its most damaging provisions, BAK said, is the creation of 47 county-level Motorcycle Transport and Safety Boards, despite the existence of a national body—the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA)—already tasked with overseeing road safety and rider registration.

Riders would be forced to register afresh at county level, duplicating what already exists on the NTSA digital platform, the association has argued. According to BAK, this move is not just wasteful—it opens the floodgates for harassment, extortion and chaos.

“Why are we being asked to register again, to pay again, to verify again? This is not regulation. This is punishment. It is taking the little we earn and giving it to bureaucrats and cartels,” said Mubadi.

The Bill also proposes that every rider must be part of a SACCO, a move BAK says strips riders of their freedom of association and could easily lock out the poorest from operating.

“We are not against organisation but it must be voluntary not forced. This is how cartels begin. This is how dreams are killed,” said Mubadi.

Perhaps most painfully, the Bill demands that motorcycles be fitted with GPS tracking devices, that sellers supply helmets and jackets of specific colours, and that formal employment contracts be drawn between riders and motorcycle owners.

These requirements, BAK argues, will drive up costs, benefit politically connected suppliers,and further entrench corruption, all while forcing riders to choose between breaking the law or going hungry.

“We are barely surviving as it is. Now you want to make us pay for trackers, for coloured jackets, for registration twice over, for approvals we don’t need? This is not regulation, it is exploitation wearing the mask of policy,” said Mubadi.

Worse still, the Bill proposes that boda bodas should not carry loads exceeding 50 kilogrammes, a move that threatens to cut off remote communities from markets, deliveries and essential transport.

“A sack of maize weighs more than 90kg. This law would criminalize the transport of food. It would harm farmers, kill small businesses and starve rural Kenya,” BAK warned.

Formal employment contracts, another clause in the Bill, are equally unworkable according to the association which says the vast majority of riders operate on informal agreements that allow flexibility in an uncertain economy.

Forcing them into rigid contracts, BAK warns, would destroy the very structure that allows many of them to work in the first place.

BAK also rejected proposals to devolve regulation of motorcycle transport exclusively to counties, saying this would contradict the NTSA Act and lead to confusion, duplication and inconsistent enforcement across the country.

Calling for a complete overhaul of the proposed law, BAK urged Parliament to halt the process and initiate a stakeholder-led conversation to improve the Traffic and NTSA Acts—without penalising the people who keep Kenya moving.

BAK is the national umbrella body for Boda boda riders registered under the Societies Act of Kenya and represents over 1.2 million riders, with the sector being among the biggest employers in the country mainly for the youth.