The national government has launched registration of boda boda operators and the issuance of Smart Rider’s Licenses in all the fifty-two Huduma centres across the country.
The exercise will be conducted in a span of sixty working days (28th March 28 – June 24, 2022)
According to Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi more than 70 percent of the riders are not trained on how to ride motorcycles apart from the brief sessions they receive at estates and homes.
“There is no regulation on the sector and it is in a mess hence the need to conduct the mass registration and proper documentation,” he said.
“The President ordered the waiver of the Sh5,800 registration fee to ensure there is maximum absorption. It is better we forgo the money and have an orderly sector in the end,” he said.
Official data shows annual registrations have doubled over the past five years to stand at 252,601 compared to 123,539 new listings as of 2016.
Following the processing of registration information, a registered boda boda rider will be issued with a Smart Rider’s License, a National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) which will provide 12 months of health coverage to the first 200,000 licensed boda boda riders.
To register, a rider must appear in person and bring an original national ID card, a copy of KRA PIN number, and a phone number that is active and registered.
The registration information will be processed and a notification sent to the registered mobile number.
This comes after President Uhuru Kenyatta, ordered a countrywide security crackdown aimed at weeding out rogue boda boda operators from the sector following the recent assault of a female motorist on Wangari Maathai Road in Nairobi County.
Describing the incident as disheartening, the President said he had instructed the country’s security apparatus to clamp down on rogue boda boda cyclists and ensure perpetrators of the heinous act are brought to book.
The sector has operated without decorum and decency for a long time. The riders are not trained on road safety – while most of them don’t even have a rider’s license and to make it worse they are a law unto themselves.
This has bred criminal gangs where impunity reigns supreme, especially on the road.
The chaotic situation has put drivers in danger: some have lost their lives along with their innocent passengers with thousands getting maimed.
In 2019, for instance, 1,421 boda boda riders and pillion passengers died, compared to 1,049 motor vehicle drivers and passengers.
Some boda boda riders have been accused of actively participating in or abetting a crime and helping remove or conceal the bodies of those killed by criminals.
The sector provides one million direct jobs for riders earning about Sh1 billion daily, according to a new study, underlining the importance of the motorcycle business to Kenya’s economy amid a recent countrywide crackdown on the operators over indiscipline.
According to the study by listed firm Car & General (C&G), the sector supports six million livelihoods indirectly, about 10 percent of the country’s population.
C&G estimates that each rider makes an average of Sh1,000 daily from an average of 15 rides, this translating to a daily income of Sh1 billion or Sh365 billion annually for the one million of them.
