Bernard Wanjala mistook plainclothes officers for a customer on March 14.
He was frogmarched from Kenya Railways Roundabout up to Capitol Hill police station.
As he was heading there, he noticed the number of police officers had increased in number.
"I kept quiet all along until I gained some courage and asked them the mistake I had done," he said.
"They told me there was an operation following a viral video that showed a young woman being harassed by a crowd of boda boda riders."
Wanjala said the officers pardoned him after he parted with the Sh800 he had made.
Dishon Fwamba also fell into the same trap after a plainclothes police officer lured him.
"She came like any other customer and lured me to where her colleagues were," Fwamba said.
He was booked in at Capitol Hill police station before being dragged to court on March 10, where he was slapped with a Sh20,000 fine.
"I was accused of operating within the pavement," he said.
Fwamba rallied family members to raise the fine before his bike was released on March 14.
The operator, who earns between Sh2,500 and Sh3,000 a day, is pleading to be allowed to operate freely within the CBD, but the authorities will hear none of it.
While the short-lived crackdown proved to be a cash cow for corrupt officers, road accidents are a daily scourge, and the boda boda industry is notorious for them. In 2020, for instance, there were 2,332 boda boda deaths.
Imagine a boda boda rider cruising at 140km per hour, and your body is the airbag
SAFETY FIRST
A task-force is now trying to find ways to regulate the industry amid fears many riders are unlicensed. A directive to ensure they all belong to saccos is among the measures pronounced so far.
Meanwhile, an innovator has developed a speed limiter that could help reduce the run-ins with the police.
“Imagine a boda boda rider cruising at 140km per hour, and your body is the airbag,” Njenga Mwangi, the founder and CEO of Alerby Logistics Innovation, says.
He says 70 per cent of motorcycle accident fatalities involve speeding, while 50 per cent of the victims are left paralysed for life.
Moreover, 85 per cent of local and cross-border crimes are committed through motorcycles, he says.
Njenga, 30, says the Salama Speed Limiter, the first of its kind in the country, will be a game-changer. 'Salama' is Kiswahili for safe.
The cost of installing the gadget is Sh9,000, with expectations that it will reduce when mass production has heightened.
“If you consider the number of fatalities, injuries and the overall economic cost of treating the injured persons, social cost becomes a development challenge,” Njenga says.
He hopes to work hand in hand with stakeholders on behavioural change projects aimed at developing a better perception and understanding of the Highway Code.
The stakeholders include the National Transport and Safety Authority, National Police Service and riding schools.
Njenga says his innovation will protect both riders and passengers as the likelihood of serious injury or death faced by motorcyclists is higher than that of any other motorised group.
He says riding at slower, reasonable speeds will improve visibility.
This, he says, will help reduce the risk of fatal accidents and the likelihood of long-term disability and paralysis.
Njenga says the Salama Speed Limiter has three main components. These are micro-circuit units, speed sensors and wiring.
“The micro-circuit unit is set at a constant 50km/hr. The sensor transmits the data to the micro-circuit unit,” he says.
Njenga says when a speed of 50km/hr is attained, the micro-circuit unit controls the relay to cut off the engine power.
He says the motorcycle immediately reduces its speed and the micro-circuit unit automatically controls the relay to recover the engine power in a very quick, safe and effective sequence.
Njenga says the speed governor has no effects on the normal functionalities of the motorcycle and does not interfere with the braking system.
It also has no shaking or vibrations or discomfort or engine backfires.
TAMPER-PROOF
Njenga says the speed limiter is tamper-proof and its functionality only comes to play when the set maximum speed limit is reached.
The limiter also comes in handy in the tracking and management of the motorcycle.
“The retrieved data is time-related with global position coordinates. All data is stored in non-erasable memory,” he says.
Njenga says there is a real-time electronic relay of data to its storage system through the use of the limiter.
Speed recording is in km/hr format, with a five-second interval and onboard and off-board storage of data.
The tracker allows motorcycle owners to monitor in real-time the location of their motorcycles through their personal computers, iPads or even mobile phones.
“This way, the owner of a motorcycle or fleet has 24-hour access to surveillance provided by our online tracking system,” he says.
Njenga says their advanced tracking system generates real-time reports of where the motorcycle is at any time of the day or night.
The real-time reports generated include the exact location of a stolen motorbike and continuous monitoring, a move likely to curb motorcycle theft, he says.
Njenga says 50 users are currently piloting the device, whose partners include Kenya’s leading telco Safaricom.
He says they are using Safaricom’s platform, which covers 98 per cent of the country.
“Safaricom offers us their platform and sells data to us at subsidised rates,” he says, adding that data is held exclusively by the telco.
Njenga says the benefits of the tracker include motorcycle location playback of where it has been all day, engine cut-off from mobile phone, laptop or computer, geo-referencing of motorcycle routes and fast recovery in case of theft.
“Our fleet tracking and management system allows for complete management and cost reduction of the fleet remotely from a preferred source or device.”
Njenga says the fleet management package is tailored for transport companies, leasing and rental companies and delivery and distribution companies.
The features of the fleet management package include current position reports, speed reports and alerts, mileage reports, geo-fencing reports, stop reports and SOS panic buttons.
Others are engine cut-offs, the exact location of the bike when stolen, user name and password to access the system.
Njenga says his speed limiter has GPS technology that has roles to perform in law enforcement agencies, ranging from speed limit enforcement and motorcycle tracking.
He says after the limiter has been installed, aftersales services include best-in-class maintenance and parts, product and technical training, customer fulfilment and follow-ups.
HURDLES GALORE
Njenga says developing the limiter was a long and painful process.
He says they developed the first prototype in 2015 but it never worked as it was wrong from the word go.
Njenga says the prototype that broke the camel’s back is the one of 2018.
They had everything right but used the wrong components, which burned the motherboard.
He said the ninth prototype will be final and smaller.
He says they are working with insurance firms so operators can have a subsidised comprehensive and personal accident insurance cover.
“We have a few people willing to finance them, and the riders will be paying as little as Sh20 a day. We also want to help them join self-elected saccos and chamas, and we are happy to see the government has started the initiative.”
With a gadget that instils discipline among riders, the sector is set to open up for women to get into the industry and start enjoying it because at the moment, it is deemed unsafe
Njenga says the gadget will bring them even closer and enable them to save as a group.
Every operator will have a hand in all the money they are collecting or they're able to put together.
Njenga says the move will also help them appreciate the need to pay for NHIF for themselves and their dependents.
He says with the order he expects to be established, the male-dominated industry will attract women.
“With a gadget that instils discipline among riders, the sector is set to open up for women to get into the industry and start enjoying it because at the moment, it is deemed unsafe,” he says.
Njenga says operators will also be helped to access affordable motorcycle loans.
He says the tracker will help financial institutions read the pattern of the operators.
Njenga says they also are working with some law firms because they want to provide legal services for the riders on pro bono basis.
Edited by T Jalio