Address the Boda Boda crises from a multi-dimensional approach

We should not let the ongoing crises pertaining the Boda Boda sub-sector go to waste without instituting lasting and impactful changes to it. This is because the sub-sector plays an important role as part of greater informal sector economy that thrives because of many factors like high population growth rates without corresponding jobs, internal and external factors like unemployment, underemployment, poverty, gender inequality, precarious work conditions and failures associated with public transport. The development of the sub-sector has taken the same trajectory as the matatu sector in the 1960’s and 70’s that necessitated government intervention through appropriate laws, though there was resistance just as is happening with intervention in the boda boda subsector.

The boda boda subsector plays an important role in income generation because of the ease of entry and exit.  It is has low entry requirements for education, skills, technology and capital, factors which have prevented the boda boda riders from joining other jobs.  Many people join the subsector to survive and have access to basic income through which they can sustain themselves.

According to the report recently published by Car and General, the boda boda subsector has created over one million jobs where riders earn one billion shillings a day. The report shows that the sector supports six million livelihoods indirectly, which implies that it supports almost 12.5% of the Kenyan population, if we estimate the population to be forty-eight million people. It also shows that the sector contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 3.4% which is almost catching up with the education sector, which contributes 3.8% of the GDP. Despite the much importance placed to the boda boda sub-sector, it is prone to some negative aspects according to the 2018 National Crime Research Centre. This calls for effective management, regulation, and licensing. Going forward, we need comprehensive reforms to be undertaken in the sub-sector that addresses multiple fronts. One, organize the riders into recognizable, easily verifiable, and identifiable groups/saccos such the bad elements are easily nabbed, and corrective action taken. This organization will make the subsector lucrative, enable individual savings and wealth creation. Secondly, ensure adequate laws and regulations to govern the subsector. Thirdly, ensure adequate sensitization, education, & awareness creation on the role of the subsector in employment creation (it’s a job like others) and need to be patriotic and decent.