Boda boda: Two-faced crime spinner or economy driver?

It was a chaotic spectacle of man and machine that was hard to ignore. Like a herd of charging buffalos, hundreds of public transport motorcycle riders, popularly known as boda boda, had taken over Keroka town and brought it to a standstill — blocking the main road to all other traffic, forcing panicked traders to close their businesses, dislodging pedestrians from footpaths and creating a racket with their shouting and hooting.

The arrest of a boda boda rider by the police for an alleged traffic offence had apparently inspired the unity of hundreds of his colleagues to abandon their routine of ferrying passengers to various parts of Nyamira and Kisii counties to protest the purported harassment by law enforcers.