As I walked around Namirembe road in Kampala, I noticed a swam of Boda Boda riders. Many with passengers, luggage, and single riders, I couldn’t tell or even manage to count how many they were. This raised a question of how many Boda Boda’s are in Kampala, and which I want anyone with accurate stats to help me answer – Asab.
Re: How many Boda Boda’s are in Kampala?
Given an estimation other than the actual figure, all I can answer you is that there are Millions of Boda Boda’s operating in Kampala. With the Majority being “Rubyanza’s” aka “stageless”, or having no known stage where they operate from, it becomes very hard for controllers like KCCA to have the exact figures.
It is so true that walking around any of the streets in Kampala including Ben Kiwanuka, William street, Nakivubo and etc, you will notice an uncountable number of Boda Boda riders, who have made themselves a name in the hit and run world. On several occasions, victims of boda-boda accidents share how many simply run away, then help the injured, an act which has left many helpless.
Currently, a number of companies including SafeBoda, Taxify, UberBoda, etc have come up to offer a service that not only trains Boda Boda cyclists once they join but also helps turn them into professional cyclists. These companies have uniforms including helmets which help one identify a rider by a number other than the registration number plates, which has always been difficult to read in cases of accidents.
Now that KCCA is planning to limit Boda Boda access in town as a way of promoting shopping, in addition to registering all motorcycle taxi drivers, maybe, it will be possible to know the exact number of those Boda Boda’s operating in Kampala based on the records which will be available.
