By: N. George
Worth Noting:
- A critical look at them you would wonder why are they behaving as if they are above law? Why don’t they respect both pedestrians and fellow motorists? Why should such a culture be thriving in the 21st century? However you would realise that the boda boda riders responsible for carrying luggage only are far much disciplined compared to their passenger carrying counterparts.
- The simple answer is that most of them lack self-discipline, to them provided they can gather in numbers they need not to respect fellow human beings. They apply preconceived ideas in dealing with fellow human beings where they think of intimidation and physical assault as their way of life.
It is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery. These may, perhaps, succeed for once, and borrow for a while, from hope, a gay and flourishing appearance. But time betrays their weakness, and they fall into ruin of themselves. For, as in structures of every kind, the lower parts should have the greatest firmness so the grounds and principles of actions should be just and true………… Demosthenes
The quality of the fruits in a tree depicts how healthy it is, its age and type. There are fruit trees like mango tree whose branches fall due to inability to hold the weight of the fruits indicating how weak the branch is. As an intelligent farmer you should not blame the tree for bearing few and low quality fruits if you never provided sufficient conditions to the tree to enable it produce big, many and high quality fruits.
The boda boda sector has experienced a significant increase in Kenya since 2003 easing transport more so in remote areas and other areas where roads are narrow and somehow inaccessible by ordinary cars.
Growing up in 1990’s in rural Kenya whenever we heard the sound of a motorbike we thought of either the area veterinary officer or the education officer.
Of late many youthful generations have got into the boda boda transport sector. Most of them in almost all the zones even in the capital city do not follow traffic rules for example they can overtake at any point, ride in pavements, ride in the wrong side of the road, carry overload and in case if any disagreement with fellow motorists like car or matatu drivers they gang up and mistreat other motorists.
A critical look at them you would wonder why are they behaving as if they are above law? Why don’t they respect both pedestrians and fellow motorists? Why should such a culture be thriving in the 21st century? However you would realise that the boda boda riders responsible for carrying luggage only are far much disciplined compared to their passenger carrying counterparts.
The simple answer is that most of them lack self-discipline, to them provided they can gather in numbers they need not to respect fellow human beings. They apply preconceived ideas in dealing with fellow human beings where they think of intimidation and physical assault as their way of life.
At times we hear of secondary school fires one of the conclusions being these are misbehaving teenagers due to peer pressure, drug abuse among many other vices. When it comes to boda boda riders they are over 18 years age grownups of various ages why should they think collectively? Proper identification procedures need to be taken for personal responsibility to be taken to anyone of them who gets involved in crime.
If a dog barks at you, you should see beyond it and ask why it is behaving like that and who is its owner as it could have been deliberately positioned in a certain location so as to frighten those it is not aware of. A misbehaving child leaves those around asking whose son he is reason being parents have a primary role of teaching their kids the norms of the society.
A kid who is trained to respect neighbours will rarely assault anyone even at old age as he is aware that is not expected of him. He will think of fellow citizens as mother, father, brother and sister rather than seeing them as others.
Those who have been to madrassa or church school during their young hood even if they grow up and somehow disassociate with religious organisations they will never forget the values that were instilled in them at young age. You will notice some form of internal control in them due to their firm basic morals that they acquired at young age.
If a country like Kenya makes it compulsory for anyone attaining an age of 18 years to get a 6 months training at National Youth Service this could minimize petty offenders as many people will be ready to face them and it could be hard for 5 persons to be scaring 20 people. Basic defense skills would improve confidence among the citizens to deal with simple crimes.
A kid who completes primary school education become equipped to solving simple mathematical equations and reading and writing of English and Kiswahili languages so he is capable of reading road signs and other instructions even if he does not attend any other formal training. He will be able to do so for the rest of his life.
A building with strong foundation similar to a tree with strong roots will withstand many forces that act on it. Have proper and firm foundation for your kids and you will never regret in their adulthood.
Mary Karau Ngethe