- Boda boda operators make up more than 51 per cent of motor vehicles on our roads
- The riders have been accused of preying on underage school girls and married women
- However, according to the riders, it’s the women who tempt them
In just two days, one learns to ride a boda boda and leaves the rest to fate and God.
The riders are countless like the sand on the beach, and are often in a competition to break traffic rules and smash their heads on tarmac, something they do with reckless abandon.
The grim picture is painted in a recent report by the Ministry of Transport and the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) which shows that close to 400 people have been killed in motorcycle accidents over the past eight months.
This emerged as statistics revealed that motorcycles are the leading cause of accidents today.
Reports indicate that 20 per cent of all the deaths recorded every year are caused by motorcycle riders. These accidents shatter countless homes daily as bread winners, wives, husbands, brothers and sisters are sent to the grave early.
A law unto themselves, many of these riders have the morals of an alley cat and shamelessly prey on innocent school girls who see them as moneyed village heroes. A few daring ones even ‘ride’ other people’s wives, a trend that has left a trail of destruction in most households, especially where the man of the house works in distant towns.
Most boda boda riders interviewed agreed that they sleep around with school girls, married women, house girls and bar maids, but only blame women for tempting them into breaking commandments especially during the sex boom following school holidays.
Allan, a boda boda rider in Kakamega says she was lured by a primary school teacher into a relationship. "Initially, she would instruct me to give the stuff to her neighbour. Later, she asked if l can be trusted, l agreed and she started giving me keys to deliver her vegetable in her house. Finally we ended in a relationship," he says.
Dr Joseph Muleka, a Sociologist and Literature lecture at the University of Nairobi says boda boda riders are targets for women because they are everywhere and the close existence between riders and their passengers, if they are women, triggers some psychological consequences.
"Boda riders' availability makes them vulnerable and reachable for any woman," he said. And that is how married women with shaky relationships end up with riders "who provide these women with sense of security and belonging in exchange for relationships."
Dr Muleka warns relationships between school girls and riders start when they meeting become often. Boda riders will give them money and lifts in exchange for sex as some girls are always excited he explains adding that strict parents should know that "A human being is a social being, and any restrictions will make them rebellious."
