•Starehe MP Charles Njagua aka Jaguar went ahead and sued Sonko over his directive to ban bodaboda riders from Nairobi city centre.
•It is not clear if the new directive will bring sanity to the bodaboda sector given that previous attempts to control their operations have not succeeded
Image: FILE
Nairobi bodabodas have fought the Inspectorate Department for years over regulation.
Last Friday’s incident, where a group of rogue riders molested a female driver after an accident along Forest Road, has exposed them to anger from the public and government officials .
President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered all bodaboda riders to be registered afresh and directed a crackdown on all rogue riders across the country starting with Nairobi.
"A bodaboda is not a licence to strip a woman. There should never be a repeat of what happened on Friday. This is a blight on the whole Kenyan society, ”Uhuru said.
It is not clear whether the new directive will bring sanity to the bodaboda subsector given that previous attempts to control their operations have not succeeded.
In November 2015, former Nairobi governor Evans Kidero banned bodabodas from operating within the city centre.
Their operations were banned in line with provisions of the Traffic Act CAP 403 of 2014.
However, they vowed to defy a directive by City Hall and they moved to the court seeking intervention.
In October 2016, Justice Joseph Onguto dismissed a case filed by the riders who wanted the court to quash Kidero’s order.
The bodaboda operators still made their way to the CBD, ferrying passengers with reckless abandon.
Ahead of the 2017 election, Kidero terminated all cases against bodaboda riders and ordered the unconditional release of 105 motorcycles lying at the county's holding yard .
In the second Nairobi county government, barely five months into office, Mike Sonko in January 22, 2018 banned bodaboda operators from ferrying people to and from the city centre.
"Any operator and passenger found contravening this law will be arrested for an offence punishable by hefty fines and long jail terms as provided for in the Traffic Act, 2014."
However, the notice did not indicate whether the county had designated parking lots for the bodaboda operators.
Over 4,190 motorbikes were impounded by the county government in acrackdown on non-compliant operators.
They paid Sh12.7 million in court fines and storage fees.
This, however, did not deter them. They stayed put.
The then head of the Inspectorate department Peter Mbaya termed the bodaboda operators rogue and noted they do not respect traffic rules.
Starehe MP Charles Njagua alias Jaguar went ahead and sued Sonko over his directive to ban bodaboda riders from Nairobi city centre.
Jaguar stated that the move was ill-informed, was unilaterally made, and was based on irrelevant considerations.
"The bodaboda ban may result in more harm than good as the operators will be left frustrated and without a source of livelihood and may easily be indicted into the very criminal activities the ban seeks to curb," he argued.
In August 2019, City Hall announced it had identified six locations in the city centre where it will erect bodaboda shades to be used as pick-up and drop-off points in the CBD.
According to Sonko, some of the six locations where the shades were to be erected included Landi Mawe, Railways, Globe Cinema Roundabout and Kariokor.
Each shade was to hold between 20 and 80 riders but the ‘project’ was never implemented to date.
With hope still not lost, in February 2020, City Hall now sought assistance from the National Police Service to help regulate the bodaboda riders within CBD.
Previous attempts to control their operations have not succeeded. Hence, the county government believes additional enforcement by the police will tame the riders.
Appearing before the county assembly Committee for Transport, NTSA deputy director of legal services Robert Ngugi informed the committee that 50 per cent of riders in the CBD possibly lack licences.
The MCAs blamed NTSA for the failure to properly educate the riders on Traffic rules.
They said the riders should not be treated like criminals as they are only trying to earn their daily bread.
Bodaboda still continued their usual cat and mouse games with county enforcement officials in the CBD.
Some riders accused the inspectorate officers of "extortion and unfair arrest" stating that they were being harassed despite abiding by the law.
Last August,with Nairobi Metropolitan Services in the capital city, the Inspectorate department led by Mark Leleruk launched a crackdown on matatus, bodabodas, hawkers and parking boys to restore order in the CBD.
More than 200 motorbikes were impounded and taken to the Central police station but later released.
Bodaboda operators resumed normal business in the CBD.
In the aftermath of the shameful assault on a woman last Friday by the bodaboda riders, Governor Ann Kananu gave their leaders seven days to avail themselves for an open discussion.
Kananu warned, she will crack the whip on the operators in a bid to restore sanity and security in the county.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi stated that the recently launched crackdown would continue in a bid to restore the bodaboda sector.
The main question,however, still remains whether the unruly bodaboda sector can be reformed.
(Edited by Francis Wadegu)