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"id": 1235813,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1235813/?format=api",
"text_counter": 149,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Emuhaya, ANC",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Omboko Milemba",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me a chance to weigh in on this Bill by Hon. Simon King’ara, which tries to mitigate the challenges that are not only in the boda boda sector, but both two-wheeled and three- wheeled vehicles. Three-wheeled vehicles would refer to what we call the tuk tuk motor vehicles on our roads. In my opinion, there must have been a gap. All the time, we make laws to fill gaps that are existing. The Hon. Member saw clearly that there was a gap in so far as regulation of those two-wheeled and three-wheeled vehicles was concerned. That is why he came up with this particular law. We have been told by the Chair of the Committee and its members that there is an existing law which has not been implemented. If you look at the dire situation that the boda boda and all that section of the three and two-wheeled vehicles have been operating on, then you realise that the Hon. Member had a serious reason and has done everything correct in order to see to it that, that sector is regulated. In my own county, specifically my constituency of Emuhaya, there is a very well organised boda boda arrangement with their general chairman at the county level. They have visited me severally and, the last time they spoke to me, they said that they have a policy that is lying within the assembly of the county government, but the county government is unable to do anything about that particular policy. That policy would bring about self-regulation and order within the sector. Why this is happening is partly because the boda boda regulation has never been implemented if it is there. It is now for the first time, after the Hon. Member has brought about this matter, that we are being told there is a regulation which has not been implemented. By the time the law that is governing this sector was made, there were certain things that had not happened within the boda boda sector. For instance, the law that is existing and which has been talked about by the Committee very clearly, was made much earlier than the time when the boda boda became a passenger carrier. During that particular time, the boda boda were not carrying passengers and, at the same time, the tuk tuk were not possibly carrying passengers and they were not in the country. Making of laws must be a dynamic process which is driven by need, and I think that is why the Hon. Member has brought this particular Bill to this particular House. Things have changed since the time when you saw the piki piki not carrying passengers. But now they are carrying passengers. How is the licensing of a Public Service Vehicle (PSV) motor vehicle driver done? There is a certain threshold of experience that, that person must have in order to get a licence. That is because that particular person is going to carry human beings and, therefore, they need to have some extraordinary assessment of skills in driving. What about boda boda? We do not have a threshold because we do not have policies and regulations and, if they are existing like we have been told, they are not implemented. There is really need to consider this law on the Floor of this House very fairly without simply saying that there is duplication of the law. This boda boda industry is not only a Kenyan situational problem or challenge. In Thailand, where the population is about 47 million people, there are over 30 million boda boda on the road. But there is no disagreement or disorder in Thailand courtesy of the boda boda on the roads. In Kenya, where we have 47 million Kenyans – and the House should listen to this – we only have 5 million boda boda on the roads. But we are complaining that it is a chaotic industry and yet, it is driving the local economy. In fact, in my own county, whenever I meet the boda boda operators, I tell them that they have taken over the teachers. Formerly, in the 1970s and 1980s, teachers controlled the local economy. Today, it is boda boda riders that control the local economy. To bring order within that particular sector, this law was not a bad The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}