We cannot argue with the fact that boda bodas have simplified the way we move. They’re flexible and offer door to door services. They are also very affordable and have provided employment to more than 10,000 youths.
But the industry has been marred by its own challenges. Operators have been known to operate without drivinf licences and therefore causing many road carnages. But it has now been also revealed that the riders have become prey for criminals who target their motorbikes. At least 72 operators were killed and 525 injured in the past year after they were attacked by unknown assailants. Some of them also lost motorcycles in the attacks.
Police have raised alarm over the rising cases of the attacks on riders, mostly by strangers that first pose as passengers. These cases have mostly been reported in Western Kenya.
According to western Regional Police Coordinator Julius Kitili, Kakamega leads the list with 25 riders dying last year alone. Bungoma County follows closely with 24 riders having been murdered in cold blood. Busia and Vihiga have 12 and 11 respectively.
Most of those killed are aged between 17 and 30 years, leaving behind many mourning parents, orphaned children and young windows. According to Wycliffe Ambenje, the chairman of Julika Motorcycle Sacco in Kakamega town, most of the attacks occur between 7pm and 10pm, then between 4.30am and 6am.
Mr Ambenje says some of the dangerous spots where most of the attacks have been reported are Kefinco, Maraba, Lurambi, Milimani estate, Koromatangi, Joyland, outside Kakamega County Teaching and Referral Hospital mortuary and Rosterman. Others are Luandeti, Lumakanda, Mumias town, Shinyalu, and Lubao. In Bungoma town, the attacks have been reported at Marrel, Siritanyi, Musikoma and Kabula. Similar cases have been reported in Webuye town, Kimilili and Kapsokwony. In Vihiga, riders have been attacked and motorcycles stolen in Luanda town, Mbale and Majengo. The theft is also rampant in Busia town and in Nambale Sub-County.
“Boda boda business is now dangerous. Youths pretend to be your client and direct you to lonely paths, where they kill you and steal your motorcycle. We even have criminals among the riders, who are also stealing from us,” says Mr Ambenje.
For the past one year, 20 riders registered under Julika Motorcycle Sacco have been killed and their motorcycles stolen. Boda boda operators say the number of riders that never return after being hired by “clients” is on the rise. Most are found dead, their bodies always dumped on roadsides.
“A customer hired one of my riders at 1pm, but by 4pm he had not returned. We became suspicious. We tried calling him but his phone went unanswered. Two days later he was found dead in a thicket in Lubao,” said Peter Ochango, the Kakamega County boda boda operators’ chairman. According to Mr Ochango, at least 30 motorcycles have been stolen in Lurambi Sub-County alone in the last one year, 17 riders killed and 13 left nursing serious injuries.
“Some riders operate even beyond 12am. It is risky carrying three to four people you do not know on a lonely path. It is impossible to defend yourself when attacked,” said Antony Adika, 37, a motorbikes Sacco chairman. Last March Meshack Wafula, a rider, was ferrying two passengers to Sichirai in Lurambi sub-county at 7.30pm when he was attacked and his motorcycle stolen. Mr Wafula said the robbery happened barely two kilometers from where two men hired his motorcycle.
It was the passenger seated closest to him but on the pillion that grabbed his throat and ordered him to stop. “They then drugged me. I woke up after four days in hospital with deep cuts all over my body,” he recalls. The rider, who is still nursing cuts on his forehead and hands, says the owner of the motorcycle is threatening to have him arrested if he does not return to him a new motorcycle. According to police, most of the riders attacked do not own the motorcycles.
Those who survive the attacks are, therefore, forced to pay for the loss besides nursing injuries. Police have been linked to a number of attacks on boda boda riders and robberies of the motorcycles.
David Okello, another rider, recalled how he used to ferry a passenger to Kakamega Administration Police line for close to two weeks. The passenger, he recounted, was always in police uniform. Okello says one day his usual passenger offered to buy him soda at the AP line.