Riders Organize to Avoid Another CBD Ban
by Geofrey Ndhogezi
Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has once again intensified its efforts to organize the city. Under the theme “Smart City”, the authority is targeting evacuation of street vendors and hawkers, and regulation of the boda industry. The operations have started when the president has just opened the economy after two years of the COVID-19 lockdown and school fees are coming due.
In response, boda boda drivers are organizing on WhatsApp groups and through associations. The most advanced of these includes an association-based effort to get ahead of any impending regulations and improve their own standing by providing identifying reflector jackets to their members, complete with QR codes.
During the first major reopening of the economy in late July 2020, the KCCA tested its long-desired implementation of a boda-free zone in the CBD, which had been proposed a long time before. The enforcement of the boda-free zone, which came shortly after the partial lifting of the first lockdown, lasted for only three hours before the police began allowing protesting drivers past their half-hearted barricades. For a long time, plans to regulate the boda industry have met a rough path, and have failed to flow smoothly.
In 2013, KCCA registered boda riders during a major attempt at regulation, and many boda-riders (including the author) turned up.
However, in response, boda riders under the then-dominant Bodaboda 2010 organization opposed KCCA’s efforts, protesting that KCCA had not involved them in the exercise, flipping tables and threatening riders when KCCA started without their support. The eventual registration exercise, endorsed by Boda Boda 2010, ended early and only got a little over 30,000 drivers on board, much lower than the estimated 100,000 drivers in the city. Regulatory attempts met a dead end.
Today, regulation no longer gets any threats from the now defunct Bodaboda 2010 but there are new boda associations around Kampala trying to keep the atmosphere of freedom they operate in. Each of the five divisions of Kampala has several associations, including a few prominent ones.
While the KCCA is promoting the bodaboda exclusion zone, the boda associations collectively oppose the idea. WhatsApp groups are flooded with drivers one after the other proclaiming “We fight for our job.”
For a few months now, despite the internal differences, boda associations have been holding collective meetings to address the issues that tarnish the boda industry. The general secretary of Kampala Central Stage Owners Association, Mr. Sekitoleko John said that their organization focuses on stage membership and identification, asserting that this helps in avoiding the lubyanza (stageless boda-riders) who, in his opinion, are the main cause of chaos in the city plus the bad image of bodaboda.
In their efforts to promote stage membership and identification, five bodaboda organizations, one from each division, united purposely to create uniforms that will be worn by their members across Kampala.
The united organizations came up with an idea of a different color of uniforms for every division. This was implemented and their uniforms are increasingly seen around Kampala. The uniforms have QR codes which can be scanned to reveal riders’ details including names, contacts, stage locations, etc. This could be a major milestone in building trust, without needing to rely on a ride hailing app.
According to Mr. Sekitoleko, a boda rider who wants to get the uniform must be a member of a stage whose leadership signed up for association membership. A catalogue of stage members is kept at the association offices. This helps in sorting out the lubyanza riders and bringing hope to regulation. However, Mr. Kanyike Kiviri, the chairperson of Kampala Metropolitan Bodaboda Entrepreneurs (KAMBE), another major boda organization contests the idea. Speaking to Lubyanza on December 1, 2021, Kanyike said that the united organizations have no mandate to create the uniforms. On the looming boda-free zone, Kanyike said their organization KAMBE is involved in several engagements that will benefit all boda-riders countrywide and that they have taken steps to keep boda business in the Central Business District where KCCA wants to get rid of bodaboda.
While boda leaders’ efforts seem to promise desirable fruits, Mr. Kabuye Kyofatogabye, the Minister of State for Kampala and Metropolitan Affairs said in September 2021 that in six months the KCCA will unveil the implementation plan of the proposed boda exclusion zone. This meant that BanaKampala would experience another major disruption to their mobility come March 2022.
However, in a meeting held at the Ministry of Works on January 20 and reported on CBS 88.8 FM, the Minister of Works and Transport Gen. Katumba Wamala gave another ultimatum of six months for boda riders to organize themselves. He told boda leaders from the five divisions, who all attended the meeting with five members from each division, that boda riders must all have driving permits, stages, and uniforms for their respective divisions. The new ultimatum gives boda riders up to July to get organized — or face another CBD ban.
