Hassan Twesigye will never forget the 7th of September, 2016, a day which, until evening, was like any other: he spent the day on his boda boda looking for passengers. It was a busy day and he had planned to return home earlier than usual, but before he took his last trip, he was halted by six men at the Kalerwe roundabout. They identified themselves as leaders of Boda Boda 2010, and they asked Hassan a simple but dreaded question: akaffe kaliwa?
Where is your membership card?
When he told them he didn’t have it, three of them forced him off his bike and drove it off without him, telling him to take another boda and follow them to offices in Bukesa with shs. 15,000/= for a membership fee and a fine of shs. 50,000/=. But without enough cash on hand, he decided to go back home to Nansana and recover his bike the following day.
“The following morning, I went to [the] Boda Boda 2010 offices in Bukesa and I was directed to check for my bike out of the hundreds of bikes that were parked outside the office premises,” Hassan told Lubyanza. “Mine was missing!” Hassan was asked to identify the person who arrested him, but he was unable to. Boda Boda 2010 members at the office stopped helping him, and he was forced to open a case of theft at Kawempe Police station.
For months afterwards, Hassan checked on the case. Police proved no more useful than 2010, and with no where else to go, he eventually gave up searching for the motorcycle he had invested millions of shillings into and that was his sole source of income.
Hassan’s story is not unique. In our surveys of boda riders, over 70% of boda riders report experiencing or hearing of riders being mistreated by Boda Boda 2010, including motorcycles being impounded or stolen and even murder. Many boda bodas in Kamapala suffered worse than Hassan during the Boda Boda 2010 era, including being arrested and confined in detention centres across Kampala City while others were horribly beaten, at times during the presence of Police officers. Where Bodaboda 2010 came from and how it all “ended in tears” after the group’s involvement in atrocities are elaborated in this blog.
THE RISE OF BODA BODA 2010 ASSOCIATION
Boda Boda 2010 was created in the wake of another unpopular group: the Kampala Union of Boda Boda Cyclists Association (KUBOCA), whose traffic wardens had resorted to extortion and harassment. Through an extraordinary turn of events, the boda rider and FDC activist Tom Jjulunga confronted President Museveni’s convoy and demanded the end of KUBOCA’s wardens. After the President passed the issue to IGP Kale Kayihura, who agreed to withdraw Police support for the wardens, the city was once again without a dominant boda boda association.
In early 2010, Gen Kayihura gave his backing to a new group – through public consultations, backdoor agreements, and the arrest of potential competitors – led by a local NRM campaigner named Abdullah Kitatta, and named the group Boda Boda 2010. They took over management of all boda stages and appointed leaders throughout the City, but faced significant opposition from local boda boda leadership.
“Bodaboda 2010 were only unsuccessful in Kawempe division as they faced a lot of opposition,” said Ssengendo Ronald, a boda boda rider in Kawempe since 2013. Leaders like Mawejje Frank and Kanyike Kiviri, who have since become the Chairman and Vice Chairman respectively of the Kampala Boda Boda Leadership (BBIU), became known for their consistent opposition to 2010.
Abdullah Kitatta had been an NRM campaigner, and in his new position ensured that they banned riders from showing support to opposition leaders. After the 2011 General Elections and a period of inflation, Forum for Democratic Change presidential candidate, Dr Kizza Besigye Kifeefe began the Walk to Work protests that paralysed the City. Boda boda riders were active on both sides, as opposition riders would escort Dr Besigye to the city centre as they had always done during political campaigns, while the police worked with Boda Boda 2010 to dissuade bodas from taking part in these protests and harassing Walk to Work protestors.
Gen Kayihura praised Boda Boda 2010 for helping the government to stop the protestors and empowered the group to register boda riders throughout the city and claim the mandate of representing the industry. However, just like their predecessor KUBOCA, Boda Boda 2010 were working under no clear law nor clearance from the Government, only implicit police backing.
Boda Boda 2010 leaders started registering boda riders in the city for a shs. 15,000 UGX ($4.2) membership fee and impounded the motorcycles of those who did not have Bodaboda 2010 membership cards (akaffe). The impounded motorcycles were parked at different offices that they had opened up in different divisions of Kampala but many were taken at the head office at Bukesa in Rubaga Division. Boda riders who had boda stages were only charged the shs. 15,000/= for membership but those without stages were charged more money ranging from shs. 200,000/= to shs. 300,000/= depending on one’s bargaining power. Lubyanzas were then assigned stages where they were not allowed to park neither pick passengers but were not interfered by Bodaboda 2010 enforcement team.
“When one day I was arrested by leaders of Boda Boda 2010, a Police officer wanted to rescue me from them,” said Geofrey Ndhogezi, “but they disrespectfully ordered him to mind his business.” Geofrey was forced to pay shs. 40,000/= after they threatened to impound his motorcycle. Throughout the city, 2010 enforcers used their power and ambiguity to extort money and even steal the motorcycles of their fellow riders.
Opposition to Boda boda 2010
“We could not stay calm after the sham elections which brought Abdullah Kitatta and his group to the leadership of the bodaboda business in Kampala,” said Saidi Kilumira, the former chairperson of KUBOCA. While the arrest of many former leaders helped clear the path for 2010’s dominance, riders would not give up easily.
“We started several rival organisations which were aimed at ending the unquestionable rule of Boda Boda 2010, but all our efforts failed since the then IGP General Kale Kayihura was behind them,” said Kilumira. Among the boda Associations which started to oppose Bodaboda 2010 included the National Federation of Bodaboda Cyclists’ Network led by Saidi Kilumira, Century Bodaboda Association led by Sula Lubega, and KAMBE led by Kanyike Kiviiri.
Boda Boda 2010 repeatedly stormed rival groups offices to dissuade them from operating, while rival groups stormed Bodaboda 2010 offices to recover their members’ bikes, and fistfights would erupt in the streets. Kasana Mustafah, a lubyanza rider who resides in Namungoona, Rubaga, recalled the day in 2017 when he fought with a Boda Boda 2010 enforcement team at Busega and managed to rescue his bike and escape arrest by the notorious group.
“As soon as I dropped the passengers at Busega roundabout, Boda Boda 2010 guys grabbed my bike and they asked me, akaffe kaliwa?” said Mustafah. “In fact I didn’t have the card, I held my motorcycle guard with both hands, sat down and told them to pull me on the ground with my bike. I caused havoc at Busega roundabout as hundreds of bodas parked to witness what was taking place, some of whom where members of Boda Boda 2010 and many non-members. The two groups started a serious fight for close to thirty minutes while police was just looking on,” Mustafah added. When the fight became intense, he took the advantage of the distraction to scape with this bike. Opposition to 2010 had become widespread, and any support they had initially enjoyed for reducing lubyanzas had largely disappeared.
“We started Boda Boda 2010 with an aim of organizing the boda boda business in the City,” said Kawaala Rashid, one of the top leaders of Boda Boda 2010 and now the public relations officer for Boda Boda Industry Uganda. “But along the way, we started working for personal aims and messed up everything in the city.”
The End of 2010
Boda Boda 2010 finally fell after it was discovered that Kitatta’s brother had been involved in the murder of Case Clinic accountant Mr. Francis Ekalungar. When the Chieftaincy of Military Investigations (CMI) arrested Abdullah Kitatta and several other leaders of Boda Boda 2010 on January 22nd 2018, Century Boda Boda Riders Association, led by their chairperson Sula Lubega and joined by KAMBE members, harvested the widespread resentment and lack of leadership to strike a final blow against the group. Sula and his supporters spread the word to riders whose bikes had been apprehended to pick them up from 2010 offices. In the process, Boda Boda 2010 offices were raided, where discoveries of police uniforms, stolen materials, and even guns fed fuel to the flames of boda riders’ anger. Hundreds of riders joined in, and 2010 offices in Bukesa, Ndejje, Makindye and elsewhere were set ablaze. Not long before their eighth birthday, 2010 was done.
Court
In an indication of government support for the end of Boda Boda 2010, Century riders charged with malicious damage and inciting violence were released when none of them were found guilty of the offences due to a lack of evidence. A few months later, deprived of his prized Boda Boda 2010, IGP Kale Kayihura was fired, arrested, and barely avoided jail time. Kitatta was sentenced to eight years in jail for the illegal possession of firearms, which was later quietly reduced to three years.
However, despite widespread complaints of mistreatment, torture, brutal arrests, extortion, robbery, murder and the theft of motorcycles, no civil case for compensation for riders has been taken on by courts of law and none of the offended persons have been compensated.
Six years after his fall, Abdullah Kitatta is back at work as an NRM campaigner in Rubaga. Kale Kayihura is slowly rehabilitating his public image, speaking in neighborhood churches. And the Boda Boda 2010 office in Bukesa, where Hassan’s motorcycle and livelihood disappeared, has become a MK Project office.
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