Bodaboda Riders Sue Gov’t Over Campaign Slogan, Want Sh426 Billion

A section of bodaboda operators sued the Kenya Kwanza government for allegedly leaving them out of their plans.

The riders argue that during the period leading the 2022 General Election the Ruto administration ran a campaign that was majorly centered around the empowerment and uplifting of the lives of the persons engaged in boda boda and Mama Mboga business.

The petitioners say there is a depreciation of the earnings of the persons in the boda boda sector of about 32 percent due to the use of the term by Kenya Kwanza which translates to about Sh426 billion.

The riders the government has since “peddled a narrative that structures of the current political government is comprised of the bodaboda and Mama Mboga wo/men, while in fact the same is utterly false and untrue.”

“That as a result of the impugned utterances by the Members of the 1st Respondent political science party, the people engaged in boda boss business to earn a living suffer massive financial losses, in the future irreparable harm to their goodwill and business signatures,” reads the court papers.

The petition filed by Malindi bodaboda operators, Linda Jamii and others also states that the Kenya Kwanza slogan has deprived the bodaboda and Mama Mboga business people of their income owing to the hostility from Kenyans’ dissatisfaction with the current government.

“Additionally, the utterances of the Members of the 1st Respondent political party that the current executive arm of the government of Kenya comprised of the bodaboda and Mama mboga wo/men subject the persons engaged in boda boda and Mama Mboga business to psychological trauma owing to the reduction in their source of income and hostility of the people of Kenya who are clearly dissatisfied with the government’s inability to bring down the cost of living,” the petition further reads.

They now want the government stopped from making utterances on Mama Mboga and Bodaboda claiming that it has an effect of threatening to violate the Petitioners’ rights and fundamental freedoms as illustrated.