The streets of Nairobi are unusually quiet today. It is not a peaceful silence, though; it is the sound of a city held hostage. The Matatu Owners Association has made good on their threat, blocking major roads and halting transportation.
Their reason? They are protesting the impunity of boda bodas on our roads. They are demanding that the government finally reins in the motorbike riders.
The Boda Boda Menace
To be fair, nobody is denying that boda bodas are a problem. If you live in Nairobi, you know they do everything wrong. Their list of offences is long and exhausting:
- They ride on pavements, bullying pedestrians.
- They bypass traffic lights and ignore police orders.
- They have no insurance and often no driving licences.
- They ignore lanes, roundabouts, corners and more; driving in whichever direction they please.
- They knock down pedestrians and scratch other cars daily.
On the surface, the Matatu Association sounds like they are fighting for the rule of law. But to anyone who actually uses these roads, this protest is a spectacle of breathtaking hypocrisy.
The Great Irony
The funny thing is this: Matatus do the exact same things,. The very accusations they are levelling against the bikers – ignoring rules, flouting road markings, and driving dangerously – are the standard business practices of the matatu sector.
We have seen matatus overlap on shoulders and bully private motorists. Even worse, there are tragic instances where matatu passengers have died after being thrown out of moving vehicles by touts in a hurry. For this sector to stand up now and demand “road safety” is a classic case of “we can flout the rules, but boda bodas shouldn’t.”
The Myth of “Public” Transport
Here is an even weirder thing about this situation. In Kenya, we do not actually have a proper public transport system – save for the Standard and Meter Gauge Railway by Kenya Railways.
What we call “Public Service Vehicles” (PSVs) are actually just privately owned buses and vans organized into Saccos. These are private businesses whose main goal is profit, not service. But with no government controlled options, this private sector controls how Kenyans move, trade, and live.
This brings us to the “Big Men.” It is an open secret that the sector is messy because it is owned by the people supposed to regulate it. Big business people, Police officers and even senior politicians own fleets of these vehicles. We have even seen reports of a high-end matatu linked to the President’s son flouting rules and engaging in annoying, unsafe behaviour on the road.
If the police and the political elite are the ones cashing in on the chaos, on what legal basis can they demand better from boda bodas? They are asking for a monopoly on bad behaviour, not an end to it.
Manufacturing Consent?
Weirdly, the economics of this strike do not add up. The matatu industry runs on daily cash flow. A day without passengers is a day of massive losses.
It is rare to see profit-driven matatu barons agree to ground their fleets and lose money just to make a point about “road safety.” There must be something else at play. Is there money coming from interested parties? Is this an attempt to bully the boda sector out of business?
In political science, this looks like “manufacturing consent.” It feels like a coordinated effort to make the public so angry at boda bodas that we accept harsh new policies or business shifts that benefit the big players.
The Bottom Line
Boda bodas are terrible; there is no denying that. They must follow all rules and act like proper vehicles on the road.
However, the same applies to matatus. They shouldn’t park anyhowly, drop and pick passengers in the middle of the road, flout speed limits, or ignore traffic lights. If we want a functional city, we cannot choose between the chaotic van and the chaotic bike. Both need to follow the law.
Until then, today’s strike is just a noisy argument between two reckless drivers, while the commuter stands on the pavement, stranded.
