Motorcycle taxis barred from Lamu Old Town

Boda boda riders who will be found doing business in Lamu Old Town centre will now be arrested and charged.

A meeting convened this week by the Lamu County government in collaboration with the national government and which brought together various stakeholders from the trade, tourism and cultural promotional groups, resolved to minimise and restrict bod boda movement in the Lamu archipelago to preserve the Old Town.

Lamu currently has at least 150 boda boda riders.

The town is a world heritage site having been listed by Unesco in 2001.

This requires that all elements of modern changes are to be avoided in order to preserve the culture and heritage of the ancient Swahili town.

Speaking to Business Daily Thursday, Lamu County Trade, Tourism and Industrialisation Executive Dismas Mwasambu said boda boda riders will only be allowed to operate in the outskirts of Lamu Old Town and not within the town centre as has been the case.

In 2015, the county government of Lamu banned the use of automobiles including vehicles, motorcycles and bicycles in Lamu Old Town in order to preserve the cultural heritage of the historical town.

The only vehicles allowed to operate on the Island are the Lamu hospital ambulance, a fire engine and the county garbage collection tractor.

Others are the county commissioner’s official vehicle and motorcycles belonging to the Ministry of Public Health, Water Board, Kenya Power AND the county government.

In recent days, the efforts to preserve the Old Town seem to have been hampered by the influx of boda bodas.

But Mr Mwasambu said the county would not sit back and watch as the town is degraded and therefore called on the boda boda riders to adhere to the new directive failure to which they will be arrested and fined.

He said the county is planning to develop a special ring road for the boda bodas to access the Old Town.