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Lawyer sues govt over failure to regulate boda boda business
Residents at the scene of a crash involving a boda boda operator and a government vehicle on January 29, 2017. The motorcyclist died on the spot while his passenger died later at a hospital.
A city lawyer has sued the government over the failure to regulate commercial motorcycle operations, a failure he says has resulted in widespread road carnage, mob violence, sexual assaults, and destruction of property across the country.
Lawyer Rogers Monda says that alarming statistics indicate that nearly half of all road fatalities in the country involve motorcycles.
He further says there has been a growing pattern of mob attacks, vehicle torching, and assaults, particularly against motorists involved in accidents with boda boda riders.
“There is an apparent link between the State’s inaction to stop and or reduce the incidents and the continued violations occasioned by the boda boda operators. This is clearly discerned by the continued and repeated incidences, no proper or effective regulatory action, officially acknowledged that there is a problem yet no action is taken thereby resulting in harm,” he said.
Mr Monda said this is happening despite clear statutory requirements for licensing, training, helmets, reflector jackets and passenger limits, but the laws are routinely ignored by boda boda riders with impunity.
The lawyer said the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) and county governments have failed to conduct systematic enforcement operations.
He added that despite a Presidential directive in March 2022 to re-register all boda boda riders, no effective identification system has been implemented.
Riders, he said continue to operate anonymously, making it impossible to hold perpetrators accountable for crimes committed at accident scenes.
Quoting statistics from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), Mr Monda noted that a total of 11,173 road crashes were recorded in 2024, representing an 11.8 percent increase from 9,900 crashes in 2023. The crashes resulted in 4,748 deaths and 11,937 serious injuries.
“Kenya now loses an average of 13 lives daily to road accidents. In 2025 alone, road fatalities increased by 3.4 percent to 4,458 deaths with Nairobi County recording the highest number of deaths between January and October 2025 followed by Kiambu with 387 fatalities and Nakuru (318 deaths),” he said.
He said data from NTSA between January and March 2025 alone showed that 301 motorcyclists and 130 pillion passengers died in road crashes.
In 2024, at least 1,200 boda boda riders were killed up from 900 in 2023. Motorcyclist deaths jumped 8.8 percent in 2025 to 1,148 from 1,055 in 2024.
“Nearly half of all road accident fatalities now involve motorcycles. This epidemic is attributable to the existence of approximately 2.5 million registered motorcycles in Kenya, of which 1.8 million are actively in use, the vast majority operating without proper training, licensing or insurance.”
Aggressive driving
He says according to KNBS, the primary source of the accidents are speeding, overloading, failure to observe lane discipline, overtaking carelessly, driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, total disregard of traffic law and aggressive driving.
The case documents numerous recent incidents of vehicle arson, lynching, and sexual violence, as well as the use of motorcycles in organized crime, assassinations, and political violence.
Mr Monda also cited arson attacks by boda boda riders including a 14-seater matatu that was burned by riders after a fatal collision in Gitaru on December 31, 2025.
He also mentioned a 65 seater bus that was set ablaze in Salgaa on the Nakuru-Eldoret highway on December 22, 2025, by boda boda riders after the bus hit and killed a motorcyclist.
The passengers, he said, escaped narrowly and traffic was disrupted for about two hours.
Another incident occurred on November 14, 2025 on Kangundo Road where a 33-seater minibus was set on fire by a mob of boda boda riders near Mama Lucy Hospital after it reportedly ran over one of their colleagues.
On sexual assault, the petition cites an incident on March 4, 2020 on Wangari Maathai Road where a female motorist was sexually assaulted after a traffic accident.
He also mentioned another incident where a female motorist was pursued in Kajiado by more than 20 boda boda operators in a hit-and-run accident.
The petitioner also cited the use of boda boda riders in political violence during the Gen Z protests in Nairobi in June 2025.
Mr Monda says despite harsh judicial sentences imposed by courts, the wave of violence continues unabated.
He cites a decision by the Court of Appeal in September 2024 where the court upheld a sentence against Moses Abwot, a Butere sub-county boda boda chairman who led a mob that killed a suspected motorcycle thief.
The court condemned the attack as a mob-inspired but misguided act of retribution.
In yet another case, Mr Peter Abonyo from Bondo in Siaya county was also handed 30 years imprisonment for the 2017 murder of a police officer who was investigating a theft case involving another boda boda operator.
“Despite these rulings, copycat attacks persist, suggesting that punitive measures alone fail to address root causes. Legal deterrence has proven insufficient in the absence of comprehensive regulatory reform and effective enforcement,” he said.
He wants the court to compel the NTSA and the county governments to establish and enforce a comprehensive national and county-based motorcycle rider registration and identification system within 90 days.
Mr Monda said there should be visible identification of all riders and motorcycles used for commercial purposes and a unique identification numbers displayed on riders’ helmets and jackets and a centralized digital database linking riders to their motorcycles.
The police should also develop a standard operating procedure for rapid response to motorcycle related accidents and mob justice.
He also wants the Ministry of Transport to fast-track the enforcement of a suitable Public Transportation (Motorcycle Regulations) Bill or appropriate legislation to comprehensively regulate the boda boda sector.
The petitioner argues that the government’s agencies collective inaction violates multiple constitutional rights, including the rights to life, dignity, and security of the person, property, equality before the law, fair administrative action, and access to justice.
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