Members of the National Assembly’s Security and Administration Committee are planning a benchmarking trip in Thailand on how to curb runaway insecurity in the boda boda industry.
The committee chairman and Kiambaa MP Paul Koinange on Thursday said his committee is planning to visit the country which has managed to mainstream its boda boda operations.
“My committee is planning to travel to Thailand to also learn more, benchmark about bodaboda because places like Thailand they have more motorbikes, ” Koinange said.
The Kiambaa MP also said the government through the Interior and ICT ministries is rolling out a program to address increasing road safety challenges in the motorcycle public transport sector in Kenya.
The March program to be conducted by the National Youth Service is targeting 1.3 million operators.
Koinange was responding to a question by nominated senator Godfrey Osotsi on the number of licenses issued to boda boda operators in the country since 2019.
Osotsi also sought to know why there have been ordinate delays in the issuance of licenses to the riders despite meeting all the requirements.
Koinange said there are 1.6 million licenses issued to the riders since last year across the country, a figure he noted is low due to among others lack of identification document to enable the riders to apply for the licenses.
He also cited delays in the collection of the already processed licenses and a low level of awareness as some of the reasons for the low uptake.
It is currently estimated that some 3,000 lives are lost, 10,000 injuries and a corresponding loss of 5 per cent of GDP annually due to road accidents.
