Alfred Nyongesa Wandera
20 August 2008
As he contemplated how to weave his way through Kampala's notorious morning traffic jams to an early July 8 assignment in Mutungo, Mr Edward Ogola, a painter based in Nakawa, could think of only one way of getting to his destination quickly; he had to take a boda boda.
Minutes after he hopped onto one, however, Mr Ogola realised the rider was too reckless for his liking. But since he was in a hurry, he decided - against his better judgment - to give the rider the benefit of doubt.
It was a decision the 37-year -old Ogola would live to regret, as it led him to a hospital bed rather than his destination. The rider's recklessness led to a tragic accident in which he broke his left leg, got a fracture on his forehead and sustained serious wounds on his back - injuries that have kept him in Mulago hospital to this day.
"The boda boda was not steady. He rode at high speed and even when I told him to reduce speed, he did not listen. He negotiated the corner to Luzira Road at a high speed without looking behind and the vehicle that was coming from behind knocked us," Mr Ogola narrated to Daily Monitor from his hospital bed yesterday.
While the rider sustained minor injuries and was able to get away before he could be apprehended by police, the accident has not only incapacitated Mr Ogola but also - according to the wife Proscovia Wiyela - crippled his family financially since he was its sole bread winner.
"We have five children whom we left at home and it is our neighbour who helps us to look after them. We have been in hospital for over a month now and we do not have ways of getting money since the accident," Ms Wiyela said.
Cases like that of Mr Ogola have become routine occurrences at the Mulago National Referral Hospital Casualty Department. According to Dr Tito Beyeza, a consultant Orthopedic surgeon at Mulago, about six of the every 10 patients admitted at the casualty department are victims of boda boda related accidents.
Mr Beyeza told Daily Monitor that their facilities are getting overstretched as a result of the increases boda boda accidents.
"Boda boda related accidents are causing overcrowding in the wards," Dr Beyeza said.
"Since we do not have enough space to accommodate all the patients, you find some of the patients on the floors and in corridors."
Police say the rampant boda boda accidents are a result of failure by cyclists to follow road rules. "Most accidents happen because boda bodas flout the traffic rules and also over speed to drop passengers faster and come back for others so that they make more money," Ms Judith Nabakooba, the Police spokesperson.
She decried the continued abuse of traffic rules by boda boda cyclists saying police planned the visit as a way to mobilise and sensitise the public about the extent to which boda bodas are costing the country.
Ms Nabakoba said out of the 29 people who died in February this year in Kampala Extra Region, 13 were passengers on boda bodas.
In a report covering January to May, Ms Nabakooba said on average, five people die per month in boda boda related accidents. She added that 65 people are involved in serious injuries per month whereas four people get minor injuries.
Police last week embarked on a crackdown on boda boda cyclists who flout traffic rules as well as those who do not provide crash helmets to their passengers. More than 300 motorcycles have been impounded by police since the crackdown started.
"Our campaign is not meant to harass the boda boda cyclists," Ms Nabakooba said. "It is our role as police and the community at large to come in and prevent accidents because we lose our relatives and friends on roads. Everybody should come in and ensure that boda boda men follow traffic rules."
The Police campaign was met with some resistance from some politicians like Kampala Central MP Erias Lukwago who opposed the move saying it was unfair to the boda boda cyclists.
However, Ms Nabakooba, responded to the politician's resistance saying the people who are dying are their supporters and if they lose them they will not have any support in their constituencies. "Politicians should join hands with police because we are trying to protect their supporters who vote them to give them mandate to sit in Parliament," Ms Nabakooba said.
Since police first ordered motorcyclists to carry helmets for their passengers, some of the resistance has come from the very passengers they are meant to protect. They argue that the crash helmets are likely to harbour some diseases which they fear to be infected with.
Dr Michael Muhumuza, acting head of the Neural Unit at Mulago Hospital, said it is important to put on the crash helmets than refusing and losing one's life. "What is better, to lose your life when you crash in an accident or keep it by putting on a crash helmet?" he asked.
Dr Muhumza advised motorcyclists to also carry instant anti-bacterial detergents for disinfecting the helmets before they are given to the next passenger.
Most cyclists interviewed by Daily Monitor yesterday said they are ready to comply with the traffic rules and provide their passengers with crash helmets but some of them especially women do not want to put them on because they claim they have spent a lot of money making their hair. This would perhaps end the kind of tragic accidents like those that Mr Ogola was involved in.
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