A sector gone rogue: Dear Hillary Mutyambai, stop this boda boda madness now!

Dear Hilary Mutyambai, stop this madness now!

Kenyans have reacted angrily to a video showing boda boda yobs attacking and molesting a female motorist on Prof Wangari Maathai Avenue in Nairobi last week. The ‘Nation’ is today demanding the immediate arrest and prosecution of all those involved in the attack, and is calling on the authorities, including the police and county guards, to end the wave of lawlessness and impunity engulfing the city and the rest of the country.

They have become a law unto themselves, these hooligans on motorbikes, who masquerade as boda boda riders. A shocking video doing the rounds on social media of a boda boda gang assaulting a female motorist in broad daylight on Prof Wangari Maathai Road, Nairobi, is the height of criminal impunity and utter madness. This horrifying incident is the worst confirmation that the boda boda menace has got out of hand.

The attack on the woman, who is said to have knocked down and injured a pedestrian, calls for the authorities to urgently investigate the incident, round up all the culprits and bring them to book. The desecration of the woman’s dignity with such crude violation is proof of how low on the moral scale these crooks purporting to offer an essential public service have sunk. Their criminal behaviour is disgusting and cries out for firm action from law enforcement agencies.

It’s a pity that in Nairobi and other towns, there has, in recent years, been a proliferation of gangs of boda boda criminals who now rule many neighbourhoods. And the biggest worry is that they have lately been expanding their illicit reach to even the central business districts. The criminal elements hiding behind their helmets have, unfortunately, been allowed to soil the image of an otherwise vital business. The crooks have been known to attack and damage the cars of innocent motorists caught up in their madness, and this is because they have been left to get away with it for too long,

Tolerated for a long time, especially by traffic police and county traffic marshalls, these crooked riders have become the perpetrators of violent crimes and behave as if they own the roads. Woe unto any motorist who gets entangled with one of them, even if it is just a scratch on the motorcycle. Within no time, the motorist will have been surrounded by a gang of rowdy riders — thugs, actually — baying for his or her blood.

Dislike for motorists

There have been numerous incidents in the cities and towns, and even rural areas, where boda boda gangs have attacked and injured other road users. They appear to have a particular dislike for motorists, especially those driving expensive vehicles, from whose humiliation they derive satisfaction.

The riders are notorious for flouting traffic rules and regulations. Many of them don’t even follow the rules but are waved on by traffic police and county traffic marshalls manning roundabouts or roadblocks. Many, too, are not properly trained and don’t even have a rider’s licence, and therefore should not be on the road in the first place. The common joke is that, after acquiring a motorcycle, the owners let their relatives learn to ride for a few hours and they will be ferrying unsuspecting passengers — sometimes to their death or permanent disability after an avoidable road crash.

The riders don’t only carry more than the single pillion passenger they are allowed, but also ride against the traffic, which is illegal and unsafe. In Nairobi’s CBD they flout the rules in the presence of traffic police and county traffic marshalls, yet the traffic enforcers are always eager to arrest motorists for flimsy transgressions.

There has also been an increase in motorcycle gangs that terrorise residential neighbourhoods and shopping centres, even committing robberies. Horrendous tales are told on the boda boda excesses, but the crimes go on unabated. In many incidents, following a road crash involving a boda boda and a motorist, their colleagues block the road and burn the vehicle and physically assault and rob the driver and passengers. Some of the criminal riders are shameless petty thieves who snatch mobile phones in traffic jams and flee.

With this attack on the female motorist, the festering wound of impunity has burst. Nobody knows who these people are since a good number of the boda boda cyclists are not registered and they will just vanish into thin air. On Prof Wangari Maathai Avenue, they went too far, and one wonders what they will do next, if not tamed.

A good number of boda boda riders do an honest job, but their business has been tainted by these crooks. They ought to tell on the rotten eggs in their midst to reclaim the trust of their customers and the general public. In the meantime, let the police hunt down and arrest the gang that committed the abominable act in Nairobi and others reported across the country. The criminals on two wheels who terrorise other Kenyans must be weeded out of the law-abiding lot of boda boda and removed from the roads.