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KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The young men on their motorbikes looked dazed in the morning heat. But when they saw a potential rider, they started revving their bikes furiously and tried to compete with each other to win the race.
For tens of thousands of men in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, this is how they make a living. For others, the speeding motorbikes embody the chaos of the city as an essential but dangerous means of transportation.
Motorbike taxis, known locally as “boda bodas,” are ubiquitous in East African capitals like Nairobi and Kigali. But nowhere in the region has the number of motorbike taxis exploded as much as in Kampala, a city of 3 million people with no public transport system and rampant unemployment.
It is estimated that there are about 350,000 motorcycles operating in Kampala, driven by men who come from all over Uganda and say there are no other jobs for them.
“We are just doing this because we have nothing to do,” said one of the drivers, Zuberi Idi Nyakuoni. “All of us here, even the other people, they have their degrees, they have their master’s degrees, but they are just here. They have nothing to do.”
Boda-boda drivers, who often operate unregulated, have resisted recent attempts to remove them from the narrow streets of Kampala's central business district, frustrating city authorities and underscoring government concerns about the consequences of angering a crowd of unemployed men.
“We have to understand where motorcycles came from and how this whole phenomenon has grown,” says Charles M. Mbaji, spokesman for Tugende, a Kampala-based company that specializes in financing motorcycle purchases. “There are a lot of young people who can’t find jobs, whether in the public or private sector, and they don’t have much alternative income to go into other ventures.”
About 76 percent of Uganda’s 43 million people are under the age of 35, government figures show. Jobs are scarce in an economy where just 1 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 – as a percentage of the unemployed as a percentage of the total labour force – rose from 9% in 2019 to 12% in 2021, according to the latest survey by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. The unemployment rate among people aged 18 to 30 was even higher, at 17%. For urban youth, it was 19%.
President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, has long embraced motorcyclists as a means of mobilizing political support. Political rallies come alive with the sound of motorbikes, whose noise can bring communities to a standstill.
Motorcycles first appeared as a means of transportation on the Uganda-Kenya border during the political instability of the 1970s, with the term “boda boda” coming from drivers who would shout “borders, bodes” at potential customers.
At that time, it was also a fast way to transport smugglers and their goods.
Now they are everywhere in Uganda, taking children to schools, people to offices, the sick to clinics, and even the dead to their graves.
When Uganda’s transport minister was shot and killed by gunmen in 2021, a motorcyclist rushed him to hospital. But the attackers were also on motorbikes and fled.
Annual police reports indicate that motorcycle taxis contribute to violent crime, and the number of fatal motorcycle accidents across Uganda has risen from 621 in 2014 to 1,404 in 2021, according to the Ministry of Works and Transport.
“We have been struggling with these motorcycles. It is not a good situation,” said Winston Katushabi, the government commissioner responsible for regulating transport.
He said a culture of non-compliance with traffic rules and road safety had spread among motorcyclists, adding that the establishment of official motorcycle taxi stands in Kampala would help bring order.
Motorcycle safety rules, first introduced in 2004, are difficult to enforce due to the sheer number of motorbikes. Traffic police watch motorcyclists run red lights and overtake other cars dangerously. They are often unable to arrest the drivers because of the danger to public order, as motorists rush to stop each other, causing crowds.
The motorcycle phenomenon has grown as Uganda’s president has remained in power. In recent years, in an attempt to erode support among the unemployed for his opponents, Museveni has given away motorcycles to his supporters and pledged to cut the license fee for three years from about $100.
The fee will be reduced to about $35 under new rules announced earlier this month, the Transportation Licensing Board said, making it easier to become a motorcyclist.
The other entry price is around $1,500 for a new motorcycle, often made by India's Bajaj.
Many motorcyclists buy equipment on credit through companies like Tugende. Others work for businessmen who buy motorbikes in bulk and distribute them to drivers but can reclaim them if the drivers are late with payments.
Motorcyclists who do not have a license and do not wear helmets risk having their bikes impounded by police. Some drivers told The Associated Press that their aggressive behavior on the roads is driven by fear of arrest or confiscation.
Innocent Oita, a motorcyclist who dropped out of school in 2008, says he was under “a lot of pressure” to keep his motorbike. He had to pay his employer the equivalent of $4 a day, plus fuel and maintenance costs. A disagreement with his employer could cost him his job.
Some days are better than others, but Oita said he sometimes doesn't make enough income to make the daily payment.
“I can work for three days without getting anything. But if I get something the next day, it could save my life,” he said.
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