The Boda Boda (R)age: Economies of Affection in the Motorbike Taxis of Kenya

Abstract

Nikushike namna gani? (How should I hold you?) The questions that women ask motorbike taxis operators are just one of the many ways that this new mode of transportation in both urban and rural Kenya have become a vehicle for laughter, outrage, (in)dignity and wealth. This paper focuses on moments of delight in the danger-filled work of motorbike taxi operators in Kenya. How much joy do boda boda (motorbike taxis) generate in modern Kenya? The delight is measured, not simply in terms of the varied financial and psycho-social accumulation that is made possible in this industry, but also in terms of the tone of the public conversations that have been triggered by the boda boda phenomena. I interrogate the grammar that has grown out of this mode of transportation, the platforms through which this grammar circulates and the tenor of the voices of thought-leaders and policymakers as they engage the conundrum of public transport. An examination of women’s engagements with boda bodas reveals a long arc that stretches from moral panic borne of knee-jerk recourses to both ethnic mores and pious religion – which often conspire to policewomen’s bodies – to reclamation and release in moments of freedom that are performed in several ways, including the erasure of the borders of personal space. Beyond the political economies of wealth and poverty in Africa, this paper is concerned with demonstrating cultural performativity in the context of post-colonial modernity and answering key questions about how national identities are forged and reinforced in a series of rapidly circulating discourses that underline commonalities far more than they entrench the differences that many see as both indelible and emblematic of the modern African state.

Keywords:

• boda boda
• laughter
• (in)dignity
• cultural performativity
• social mores
• ethnic mores
• women’s bodies

Notes

1 An earlier version of this paper was delivered at a seminar organized by the University College London African Studies Research Centre at University of Cambridge on 28 February 2018.

2 See the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census: https://www.knbs.or.ke/?wpdmpro = 2019-kenya-population-and-housing-census-volume-i-population-by-county-and-sub-county

3 An operator is not always a rider. Sometimes he is an owner who leases his bike out to a rider.

4 See Anderson and Rathbone’s Africa’s Urban Past, Richard Werbner (1996), Terence Ranger (2005), Mbembe and Nuttall (2004), AbdouMaliq Simone (2001) and Nyairo (2015).

5 See George Mukabi's ‘Mulunya’ (circa 1954). Compare the distrust of scooters in this song to the liberating power of boda boda as described by Maddtraxx in his 2008 hit, ‘Boda Boda’ and its catchy chorus, ‘nita ride boda boda mta do?’ (‘I will ride a boda boda, and you can’t do anything about that!’).

6 M-Pesa is the mobile banking service started in March, 2007 by Safaricom, the largest mobile service provider in Kenya. According to Safaricom’s Annual Report, M-Pesa revenue in 2017 stood as KSh55,084M. In November Safaricom launched M-Shwari, a paperless banking service that enables phone users to operate a bank account with savings, interest and borrowing services: https://www.safaricom.co.ke/images/Downloads/Resources_Downloads/Safaricom_2017_Annual_Report.pdf