Stage signposts face resistance
After years of discussing the idea, the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has finally embarked on installing boda stage signposts across the city. The exercise, which is being conducted in collaboration with the Kampala District boda leaders, has introduced rules that require some stages to relocate and the majority of the old stages to be closed. The threat of being chased from the city has stirred up unrest among the boda riders and led to the vandalization of several signs.
While some might expect the boda riders to be positive about the installation of the signposts, we understand that a stage whose location is being altered has good reasons to oppose the installation of the signpost. Lubiri Ring Road Stage, for example, has its signpost installed about 300 metres away from where the boda riders actually park. A university and a hotel were probably the two major pull factors for the boda riders to start that stage but now, according to the spot where the signpost was installed, it is observable that the KCCA is pushing these boda riders away from their targeted customers.
Why would the KCCA want to install signposts for boda stages?
For a boda rider, to be a member of a stage is as important as to have a home. The boda riders at each stage know each other, have by-laws, elect their own leaders, support each other in times of need such as illness, funerals, weddings, recovering impounded motorcycles and accessing motorcycle loans. For a long time, the boda stage has been a key element of boda riders’ self regulation and, if harnessed, can be effective in regulating the bodaboda industry and enforce order in the city.
Stage membership has long been a requirement (partially enforced) and working without a stage (kubyanza) is mistrusted among boda riders. Enforcement of stage membership reached its peak during the reign of Bodaboda-2010, the notorious boda association that was feared for its power to arrest and use force against boda riders who tried to work without stages. With the ever growing number of boda riders, the creation of new boda stages across the city and the expansion of old boda stages have happened in a direct proportion and now the total number of stages in Kampala is estimated to be between 1,500 and up to 50,000, attracting the attention of the authorities.
What the ongoing installation of signposts mean for boda riders.
Out of these stages, the KCCA approved only 579 for the whole of Kampala city, and those are the boda stages that will have the signposts - meaning the rest of the stages will be illegal and must close. The arrangement follows the ill-managed boda census, meetings between the authorities and segments of boda leaders, and a period of mapping the boda stages. In this arrangement, boda stages which are near government offices and key public places such as banks, major hotels, filling stations and security installations must close, relocate or merge with those that are in approved positions. And each stage must have a limited number of members despite the fact that currently, there are some stages that have hundreds of members each. There has been no forthcoming guidance from KCCA on how boda stages should exile members from their stages and the industry, or how 90% of boda riders in KCCA would be willing to pack up and leave their living in an unstable economy.
While the idea helps the authorities to implement the proposed boda-free zones and to decongest the city, it is a direct attack against the livelihoods of boda riders and their dependants. This helps explain the resultant resistance.
How are boda stages created and how do boda riders join them?
There are endless ways of, and reasons behind starting a boda stage but the agreement between the founding boda riders and the landowner often plays the leading role.
While the steps and expenses may not be the same for each stage, the procedure often involves having some agreement with a landowner or caretaker, collaborating with some form of authority such as local councils and boda associations and collecting money from the boda riders who are willing to become members. So whoever pays becomes a stage owner, not just a stage member. It is from that spirit that one of the major associations in Kampala today is called Kampala Central Stage Owners Association. Installing new sign posts in disregard to boda riders’ financial and social investment in their stages threatens both their stage ownership and livelihood, triggering resistance.
What the boda riders say.
In an interview with Lubyanza, Mr. Mujuni Dickson, the secretary of Bodaboda Industry Uganda, a major boda association, said that “the stages being gazetted belong to the KCCA and the boda riders will have to follow a certain criteria for them to be enrolled at these stages. If this is implemented, it will mean that a boda rider who doesn’t meet the criteria will not be a member of any stage though they have been members of these stages for a long time”.
According to Mr. Mujuni, the proposed reform “will cause an increase in extortion, cost of stage membership, number of lubyanzas, insecurity, unemployment and unrest among boda riders. And passengers will have a hard time moving around”.
On what would be the best way to implement boda regulations, Mr. Mujuni, who pointed out that his association was sidelined by the KCCA, said that his team at the Bodaboda Industry Uganda had proposed a procedure in the order of sensitisation and training — census — gazetting stages — enrollment per stage — elections then implementation of policies. “But they are not following this. Neither are they following their own terms and conditions such as having stages several metres away from junctions, banks, petrol stations, and street cameras”.
The most recent Lubyanza quarterly survey, conducted in April 2024, found that less than 20% of boda riders in Kampala are members of associations, raising the question of the legitimacy of much of the proclaimed leadership.
John (not his real name), a member of Nawanku boda stage in Makindye Division said that in March, the division boda leaders moved around visiting stages and asking boda riders to fill a certain form. “We filled the forms. We were required to put the name of the stage and details of all our members. After some time they brought the signpost and installed it.” Asked what the installation of the sign post means to him, John told Lubyanza that “it is likely that KCCA wants to know the exact number of boda riders so that they can estimate how much they can collect from us in taxes”.
The forms required the boda riders to fill in their names, National Identification Numbers, Driving License Numbers and others — resonating with Eng. Fortunate Biira’s remarks for bodas in Kampala. So if the new stage membership criteria involves the requirement to present national IDs and the driving Licenses, over 85% of boda riders may find themselves unable to retain stage membership.
Motorcycle ownership is of course central to being or becoming a boda rider, and today it is heavily supported by loan schemes such as Tugende, Watu, ASAAK, Mogo, Boda Banja, Banks, Microfinance institutions, boda associations, politicians, and friends and relatives — who all have a strong interest in selling or renting more motorcycles. Implementing the new criteria for stage membership threatens the ability of the majority of the boda riders to complete the motorcycle loan repayments.
The pressure from the loan schemes and the boda riders to not lose business, plus the BanaKampala’s desire for convenience in running daily errands create huge resistance against the KCCA’s desire to clamp down on the boda sector.
The threat to reduce the number of boda bodas staged in Kampala would have a huge number of impacts: exiled boda riders would become lubyanza or move into Wakiso; boda stage fraternity at large stages would be damaged by being forced to exile the “extras”; tens of thousands of boda riders would lose their livelihood; and BanaKampala would get back to walking on streets with no sidewalks and open drains and sitting in minibuses with traffic all around. We can understand why the literal sign of this change would be marked over and destroyed.
While the smart city proposals and actions sound and look attractive, targeting small businesses and requiring them to change with immediate effect, little to no public input, and with no recourse and no public transport for the average MunaKampala, is not the route we should drive down.
