Inside CS Kipchumba Murkomen's plan to tame boda boda menace in Kenya's highways

Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary, Kipchumba Murkomen, revealed plans to tame boda boda and limit their usage of Kenya’s highways and major transport corridors, to address the number of road accidents associated with the vehicles.

CS Murkomen was speaking during an interview with Jeff Koinange, where he said that boda bodas and tuk-tuks were last-mile transport options.

The last mile in supply chain management and transportation planning is the last leg of a journey comprising the movement of people and goods from a transportation hub to a final destination.

Kipchumba Murkomen appeared before the National Assembly Committee on Appointments on Wednesday, October 19, 2022. Pulse Live Kenya

He was responding to two separate accidents that happened last weekend, one involving a tuk-tuk and a drunk driver, and the other crash in which a budding politician died while trying to avoid a motorcycle.

“We must bring order. We must note that the boda bodas and tuk-tuks are solutions for the last mile. On the highway, you have certain vehicles that must go through the transport system then the boda boda guys wait at the last mile.

“If you see how dangerously people are being carried because we drive along these towns, you see someone being carried by a motorbike at a high speed on a highway with no helmet,” he said.

CS Murkomen said it was paramount to bring order to Kenyan roads and would engage the Ministry of Interior, as well as county governments.

“We will respect boda bodas because they are bottom-up but we must get organised to know that this is the area they operate and we need county governments to be able to help us in that regard. To make sure they are the transport of the last mile and the highways will have a particular responsibility,” he said, promising to explain his proposal in detail at a later date.

The term ‘last mile’ in transportation involves the last stage in getting people to their final destination.