Plight of the Bodas
on Random Uganda (Uganda), 19/Feb/2010 08:40, 34 days ago
one last boda ride?(photo credit: Irene Curley)boda boys out of guluobeying the helmet law(photo credit: kampala fan facebook page)February 19thBoda Boda CrackdownI’m sure my previous posts have given the pros and cons of the Boda Boda, Kampala’s ubiquitous motorcycle taxis.The daily carnage of the bodas iswell documentedand, now that I’m spending some time at the public hospital, has been presented to me on a personal level as well. But I don’t have a car here in Kampala (and even if I did, wouldn’t have a place to park it anywhere near Mulago) and it’s a long walk between IHK and Mulago and the trip in a matatu (2 minivan taxis, one from Namuwongo to the taxi park and the other from the park to Mulago) takes over an hour in good traffic and a third of a lifetime in the jam. So I have been forced to rely more and more on the bodas.In my post from August 13th, I marveled at how the bota drivers in Kigali, Rwanda (they’re called motos there) all wear helmets (and carry one for their passenger). I mentioned to a Ugandan surgeon how this might help diminish the high rate of head injuries from boda accidents. He smiled. As it turns out, Uganda passed a law several years ago requiring boda drivers to wear helmets, reflective vests, and to carry a helmet for their single passenger (it’s not uncommon to see bodas with 2 or 3 passengers—plus a toddler sitting on the handlebars).And, surprisingly enough, just in the last two weeks, the police in Kampala have started enforcing this law. News reports focus on the police jumping out of bushes and whacking the drivers over the head with clubs and confiscating their bikes if they don’t have the required permit, helmets and vest.At the beginning of the crackdown, Friday before last, things were oddly amiss at Reste corner (the center of the south Kampala, vso volunteer universe—the Italian market, Palm café pizza, the wine garage and fuego cocktails all being within a stone’s throw). It took a while for it to sink in. There was not a single boda to be seen on a corner where usually you have to beat them off with a stick. That turned out to be because down the roadin Kabalagala the police were actually beating them off their bikes with sticks. (the last time they had a boda crackdown, I’m told, there were riots in the downtown area, so this time the police have come with bigger forces and concentrated on one neighborhood at a time)Two weeks later, there are still noticeably fewer bodas on the road. And many (but by no means all, or even the majority) have the vests and helmets. Although that doesn’t necessarily mean they have permits as a friend of mine found out the other day when his boda was stopped. He figured, since he’d only gotten half way, that he would only pay the driver for half the ride, but the police officer yelled at him and told him to give the driver full fare (so thatthe boda boy would have more extortable cash on him).The boda drivers that hang in the lot across the street from the hospital know that I want to go across town to Mulago (going out of Namuwongo to town increases the risk of police apprehension), so they ignore my wave, unless they have the helmets. And the drivers with helmets have suddenly raised their fares 500 or even a 1000 shillings (25-50 cents—outrageous). And the helmets they are wearing range from the comical to the downright nasty. I was issued a helmet by VSO, but, I confess, had become a little lackadaisical in its use—until one of the drivers handed me this strapless bucket of a helmet smelling strongly of mildew and month-old perspiration. Now, the helmet travels with me.I tried to get one of the residents in casualty excited about doing a study to compare pre and post crackdown head injury rates. He just gave me a wan smile as if to say,‘silly mzungu, things here will never change…’