KAMPALA, Uganda – The young men on their motorcycles appeared dazed in the morning heat, but when they saw a potential passenger, they angrily accelerated their machines and tried to overtake each other.
Tens of thousands of men in Uganda’s capital Kampala earn their living this way. For others, the speeding motorcycles are an indispensable but threatening means of transport in the chaos of the city.
The motorcycle taxis, known locally as boda bodas, are ubiquitous in East African capitals such as Nairobi and Kigali. But nowhere in the region has the number of boda bodas increased as much as in Kampala, a city of three million people with no public transport system and high unemployment.
There are an estimated 350,000 boda bodas in operation in Kampala. They are driven by men who come from all parts of Uganda and say there is no other work for them.
“We are only doing this because we have nothing to do,” said one of the drivers, Zubairi Idi Nyakuni. “All of us here, even other people, they have their degrees, they have their master’s degrees, but they are just here. They have nothing to do.”
The boda boda men, whose activity is largely unregulated, have defied recent attempts to evict them from the narrow streets of Kampala’s central business district, angering city authorities and underscoring government fears of the consequences of angering a horde of unemployed people.
“We need to understand where boda boda came from and how this whole phenomenon grew,” says Charles M. Mpagi, spokesman for Tugende, a Kampala-based company that specializes in financing boda boda purchases. “There are quite a large number of young people who cannot find work, either in the public or private sector, and who do not have any significant alternative income opportunities to get into other businesses.”
About 76 percent of Uganda’s 43 million people are under 35, according to government figures. Jobs are in short supply in an economy where only one percent of the 22.8 million employed earn $270 or more a month, according to central bank figures released earlier this year.
Uganda’s unemployment rate – measured as a percentage of the total working population – rose from 9% in 2019 to 12% in 2021, according to the latest survey by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. The unemployment rate for people aged 18 to 30 was even higher at 17%, while for young people in urban areas it was 19%.
President Yoweri Museveni, an authoritarian politician who has been in power since 1986, has long relied on boda boda men to mobilize political support. Political rallies come alive with the honking of their motorcycles, the noise of which can bring entire communities to a standstill.
Motorcycles as a means of transport first appeared on the Uganda-Kenya border during political instability in the 1970s. The term “boda-boda” comes from the riders shouting “border, border” to potential customers.
At that time, they also offered smugglers and their goods a quick means of transport.
Now they are everywhere in Uganda, taking children to school, people to the office, the sick to clinics and even the dead to their graves.
In 2021, when Uganda’s transport minister was injured by gunmen who also killed his daughter, a boda boda man took him to hospital. But the attackers also rode motorcycles and fled.
Annual police reports show that motorcycle taxis facilitate violent crime. According to the Ministry of Works and Transport, the number of fatal motorcycle accidents across Uganda has increased from 621 in 2014 to 1,404 in 2021.
“We are struggling with these motorcycles,” said Winstone Katushabe, a government commissioner responsible for transport regulation. “It’s not a good situation.”
A culture of non-compliance with traffic and safety rules has developed among boda boda men, he said, adding that the establishment of official motorcycle taxi ranks in Kampala would help to ensure greater order.
Motorcycle road safety regulations, first passed in 2004, are difficult to enforce due to the overwhelming number of boda boda riders. Traffic police watch as boda boda riders speed through traffic lights and overtake dangerously, often failing to make arrests because of the threat to public order as riders quickly back each other up, creating a crush.
The boda boda phenomenon has grown since Uganda’s president came to power. In recent years, Museveni has sought to weaken his opponents’ support among the unemployed by distributing boda bodas to his followers and promising to reduce the three-year license fee of nearly $100.
According to the Transport Licensing Board, the fee will drop to around $35 under new rules announced earlier this month, making it even easier to become a boda boda man.
The other starting price is around $1,500 for a new motorcycle, often the Indian-made Bajaj.
Many boda boda men buy their equipment on credit from companies like Tugende. Others work for businessmen who buy motorcycles in bulk and distribute them to riders, but can demand them back if the riders default on payments.
Boda boda men without a license or helmet risk having their motorcycle confiscated by police. Some riders told AP that their aggressive behavior on the road is due to fear of arrest or confiscation.
Innocent Awita, a boda boda man who dropped out of school in 2008, said the pressure to keep his motorbike was “too much.” He has to pay his employer the equivalent of $4 a day, in addition to the cost of petrol and maintenance. A dispute with his employer could leave him unemployed.
Some days are better than others, but Awita said that sometimes his earnings are not enough to make the daily payment.
“I can work for three days without getting anything. But if I get something the next day, it can save my life,” he said.
Drivers of motorcycle taxis, known locally as boda-bodas, ride with passengers through a street in Kampala, Uganda, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)
Drivers of motorcycle taxis, known locally as boda-bodas, ride with passengers through a street in Kampala, Uganda, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)
Drivers of motorcycle taxis, known locally as boda-bodas, ride with passengers through a street in Kampala, Uganda, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)
Drivers of motorcycle taxis, known locally as boda-bodas, ride with passengers through a street in Kampala, Uganda, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)
Drivers of motorcycle taxis, known locally as boda-bodas, ride with passengers through a street in Kampala, Uganda, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)
Traffic police officers check motorcycle taxis, known locally as boda-bodas, on a street in Kampala, Uganda, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)
Drivers of motorcycle taxis, known locally as boda-bodas, ride with passengers through a street in Kampala, Uganda, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)
Drivers of motorcycle taxis, known locally as boda-bodas, ride with passengers through a street in Kampala, Uganda, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)
Drivers of motorcycle taxis, known locally as boda-bodas, ride with passengers through a street in Kampala, Uganda, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)
