This article was published in The Citizen Newspaper – Tanzania on June 23, 2025.
Shimbo Pastory
Landing in Dar es Salaam after a few years abroad, my safety sense felt triggered by our motorcyclists, locally referred to as bodabodas. Both riders and passengers enjoy the freedom to ride without even a minimum of safety.
Riders, to begin with, have no helmets to safeguard their heads in event of accidents, and cover their eyes and respiratory systems from dust and pollutants. Many do not wear shoes, hence leaving their feet exposed, and they do not wear the proper vest to cover their chest from wind, which with time lead to serious health concerns.
The same applies to passengers who have normalized this situation and they do not demand for helmets from the riders. Though situations force us to use certain services, it is inappropriate to allow the quality of these services to be diminished unjustifiably.
Even when a service is important, it is crucial to ensure that it is life giving and life promoting. In this case, the use of bodabodas as a service to the people needs to be first of all safe to the consumers and the service providers.
When we say ‘safe’, we go with the broader sense of the term and time because health is an important drive for social wellbeing and development. As such the bodaboda services should be safe not only by minimum compliance or paperwork, or for a little while, but should strictly meet the standards required to ensure that all who use such services are safe, and this compliance should be enduring as required and enforced.
I have personally seen where the Road safety officers do not stop bodabodas who do not comply with the required safety compliance. This needs to change because carelessness has a tendency to breed more of itself!
Many can testify that bodaboda riders, especially in the cities, tend to be more careless and daring, and only aim at arriving as fast as possible regardless of the risks involved. They do not give way at zebra crossings and hardly stop at traffic lights.
Similarly, our laws need to be very clear and practical in enforcement of what the bodabodas are allowed to carry. Many carry a lot of load which pose safety risks to other road users.
At times the rider cannot even see behind with the side mirrors as what they carry create temporary blind-spots. Many riders do not even have side mirrors at all, and will have to turn behind everytime they want to change lanes or take turns, which is not an agreeable safe practice in driving.
It is unfair and untrue to say that bodaboda riders are unfamiliar with these safety requirements. They know what is required of them. Many of them would comply where there is a risk of being caught. This is a mentality we have to work to change.
The change can be pushed by the law enforcement and the consumers of the bodaboda service. Laws are there in order to ensure there is order and safety, and not for collection of fines.
There can be a system that bans riders for repeated non-compliance, even when they can still afford to pay fines. Stubborn offenders should be heavily punished, especially when their carelessness results into permanent damage of their passengers or other road users.
In the same way, consumers need to be encouraged to be firm to demand quality of service because transport is a continuous risk.
In 2022 a published research revealed that over 16,000 lives were lost to motorcycle accidents. Many are left with permanent disabilities as well. With the level of non-compliance now, no safety gears, careless riding, riding when drunk, over-speeding, and overloading, we are surely all endangered.
It is time to train people to refuse patronizing with minimum safety on our roads for our common good as a people. Considering the reality that over half of the population of Tanzania is under the age of 18, and more than 70 per cent are under the age of 30, and 77 per cent under the age of 35, these risks are not worth taking.
We are a nation that is full of young people who are the future of this nation. Consistent safety and health standards compliance is a credible testimony of our growth into becoming more and more civilized as a people and a developing nation.
The results of these avoidable safety breaches are affecting our nation at large by compromising our young and talented workforce. It is rather better to be late but safe, than to patronise with drivers who refuse to prioritize their own safety and that of the people they transport.
In the same regard, a stricter system of licensing motorcyclists is needed to ensure that only those who earn the licenses are given.
Shimbo Pastory is an advocate of positive social transformation and a student of the Loyola School of Theology of the Ateneo de Manila University, the Philippines. Website: www.shimbopastory.com
