It Will Be Mandatory For Boda Bodas To Take Up Insurance

It will be now compulsory for boda boda operators in Kenya to take up insurance covers for themselves and their customers if the proposal by CS Ukur Yatani will be implemented. Yatani wants all boda boda compelled to take up insurance covers.

While reading the 2022/2023 national budget before the National Assembly, Yatani told Kenyans that the sector was expanding at a faster rate and that there was a need for the operators to ensure their operations to ensure their safety and that of their passengers.

Kenya is said to have at least 1.2 million riders. The numbers are however higher than the quoted since not all motorbikes in Kenya are registered. Some statistics have quoted the number of motorbikes at 6 million with about 5.9 million being boda boda.

Read More: Boda Boda a Significant Employer in Kenya as Imports Hit 10 Billion in 9 months

Nine out of 10 motorbikes in Kenya are used for commercial purposes, representing over two million jobs created. Seventy-five percent are youth and six percent are female.

According to a study by Car and General, each rider makes an average of 1,000 shillings per day from an average of 15 rides, translating to a daily income of 1 billion shillings or 365 billion shillings annually for the one million of them.

This is equivalent to 3.4 percent of GDP and almost matches the output of Kenya’s education sector, whose contribution to GDP stands at 3.8 percent. The Treasury rakes in about 60 billion shillings yearly in fuel taxes from boda bodas, which consume an average of 300 shillings worth of petrol each day.

This translates to 300 million shillings worth of fuel each day, out of which about 163 million shillings go to the government in form of taxes, levies, and other charges.

The call by CS Yatani comes at a time Kenyans and other stakeholders have been calling for the regulation of the boda boda sector that seems to have been inhabited by criminals.

Read More: M-PESA to Offer Services Such as Car Loans if it Splits from Safaricom