•Riders follow closely, a colleague ferrying a passenger deemed to be having a good amount of money or valuable items. At a fairly deserted, poorly-lit area at night, the passenger is beaten up and robbed.
The motorbike taxi service popularly known as ‘boda boda’, is simultaneously a blessing and a necessary evil. The smallness of the machines enables the riders to manoeuvre through dense traffic in urban centres easily, and deliver passengers to their destinations faster than motorcars. Cheaper fares are an additional factor.
But recklessness-induced accidents claim hundreds of lives and lead to the maiming of, and grave injuries to several people.
Yet, inevitably, people use the service, counting on providence to keep accidents at bay. Lately, the evil dimension has been worsened by a criminal dimension whose six broad aspects are:
•Riders attack people they have been stalking, and then speed off into hiding.
•Lying in wait close to where research had indicated their victims would disembark from vehicles, or emerge from buildings, they stage ambushes and flee.
•Some of the criminals ferry unsuspecting passengers whom they eventually rough up, rob and even kill, mostly at night.
•Riders follow closely, a colleague ferrying a passenger deemed to be having a good amount of money or valuable items. At a fairly deserted, poorly-lit area at night, the passenger is beaten up and robbed.
•A bike reduces speed on a sidewalk, to enable his presumed passenger to snatch someone’s bag, and the thieves then vanish.
• A drama is staged to make it appear as though a passenger and the hired rider are both victims of an ambush.
Recent motorbike-linked incidents include acid attacks on two British volunteers Kirstie Trup and Katie Gee in Zanzibar, and the gunning down in Arusha and Dar es Salaam, respectively, of businessmen Erasto Msuya and Elia Daniel Endeni
Trained police eye
Beyond solidarity often expressed by members of particular ‘Bodaboda’ centres rushing at scenes of accidents involving colleagues, the outfits are loose.
They need to be formalised and closely monitored by authorities who would include local government authorities and the police force.
Background checks must be conducted on all members of the transport sub-sector, who should be duly trained and licensed, and those with criminal inclinations must be shut out. Their personal records should be kept, to facilitate investigations in the event of criminal acts.
Applying their proverbially trained eye, the police should pick out and quiz suspicious motorbike riders. The input of community members is also critical, though.
For, criminals linked to ‘bodaboda’ service live amongst them, to some of whom they are breadwinners. In the spirit of self-service and patriotism, well-meaning people should expose them to relevant organs.
Those and related measures would shed the negative images of ‘bodaboda’ and make it a much beloved, highly beneficial transport service provider.
