The disturbing video of a woman being molested by demented and ghoulish elements along Wangari Maathai Road in Nairobi exposes the dark underbelly of an industry that has become a den of hardcore criminals masquerading as boda boda riders.
Here are arrogant, bullish and cantankerously satanic miscreants who flout traffic rules with gay abandon.
One would be forgiven to surmise that they are the real owners of Kenyan roads, thanks to their rambunctious and supercilious attitude.
It is high time the government exercised her monopoly of violence on these rogue boda boda operators who have made ‘significant’ contribution to the national headache.
The incident that went viral is testament of the wane in moral climate in a sector that now breeds dangerous species that may, if caution is thrown to the wind, threaten to annihilate human population.
Laxity among regulators
Reports of similar brutal assaults to road users are on the rise in most parts of the country.
Unfortunately, no response of equal weight has been witnessed on the part of law enforcement officers.
First, the industry must be regulated. National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) should vet all operators by putting in place stringent measures before one is licensed to operate.
No institution can thrive without adroit management and robust regulation. If care is not taken, this industry will remain a towering exemplar of first-degree wickedness.
As a country, we must assemble necessary strategies and arsenal to bring order in the boda boda industry.
Those arrested for flouting traffic rules must be quickly apprehended.
It will be a monumental climb up of the mountain for Kenyans to read that all perpetrators of such heinous crimes are decisively dealt with.
Dealing with bloated egos of rogue riders is a step in the right direction.
Relativism, a new paradigm of evil in which self retains the tendency to decide its own parameters of morality is a culture that now permeates this industry that is a source of livelihood to some innocent job seeking Kenyans.
I am glad that President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered dialogue among stakeholders in the sector with the aim of coming up with regulations to clean up the sector.
The wanton bellicosity of rowdy riders will remain a poignant reminder of an industry that was poorly regulated and inundated by rogues and rascals who run amok as if Kenya is Pariah state.
Radical changes
Riders must be reminded that they can shape the industry and live prosperous decent lives devoid of unnecessary belligerence.
Radical changes are needed to inject sobriety into this sector.
It is indeed a pity to have rogue elements operate on roads maintained by tax payers’ money.
All loopholes in the industry must be hermetically sealed as most Kenyans have harped on the same string and called out the government to expedite.
Riders are not sacred cows that should be mollycoddled or treated as Kenya’s Xmas trees!
The latest incident that has now exposed the kernel of the matter provides an opportunity for cutting the Gordian knot.
Similarly, motorists and other road users must now be on the qui vive in order to escape would be ugly scenes orchestrated by blood-thirsty riders.
NTSA must take the reins and descend on this motley collection of social misfits.
An elaborate plan must be in place to sanitize the industry and make it a safe haven for genuine Kenyans out to fend for their families.
However, having knee-jerk reaction is tantamount to the behaviour of a Lilliputian undertaker who would rather trim a corpse than expand his or her coffin to accommodate a man-mountain, or a carpenter whose only tool is a huge hammer and to whom every problem is a nail.
The writer is a communications specialist