Day One Hundred & Eighty Five - The Problem With Boda Bodas

The Deputy Minister of Interior recently ordered the banning of bodas from entering city center her in Juba. This order is the result of high rates of accidents caused by and involving motorists.

I can understand why they are being banned. They really are a hazard because of the way people drive here. Most of the boda boda drivers drive crazy and the people driving vehicles also suck at driving. Boda bodas come out of nowhere when you are driving down the road it is a surprise there are not more accidents. So for safety sake of many many people this is good. On the other hand, people are now criticizing the ban on boda boda routes. This ban is obviously going to hurt all the boda boda drivers business. But really, it is going to be very nice to not have to dodge boda bodas on the main streets, which are the busiest streets and really congested. The justification from the Ministry of Interior for implementing this ban may not entirely make sense or be correct but the choice is made. Now it has to be enforced, which means at least 5 soldiers at every round about and intersection in the areas where bodas are banned.

An excerpt from a news article:

“We thought that South Sudan is about the marginalized and the disadvantaged, but obviously this is not the case. High food prices, poor health care, inadequate education system, appalling sanitation and foreign dominated investment, to create unaffordable and shortages of accommodations and the list is long. These are all haunting and affecting the poor and those with low incomes, with the consequence of widening the gap between the have and have not. So if the bodas could be banned why not banning alcohol, traffic breakers especially those big cars who are causing chaos by turning at any point, wherever they wish, are these also not road safety hazards? By government banning bodas and stopping boda users from attending their daily service is not a comprehensive solution, neither for boda users nor for the bodas. At least some alternatives and appropriate replacements should be put in place before issuing such a discriminating order.”

They are the only cheap mode of transport aside from walking. Having used bodas in the past I can understand why people are upset.

Politics and the way things are done here in South Sudan are certainly interesting, sometimes puzzling and seem not entirely thought through, but it is what it is and we all have to deal with it.