Hundreds of boda boda operators together with Lwandeti ward residents in Lugari Sub County disrupted transport activities along Lwandeti-Nzoia road as they held a demonstration and planted banana stems on the road protesting over its bad state.
The residents crowded the road as early as 7:00 am armed with hoes, spades, and banana suckers, ready to plant them on the busy road which links Lwandeti market in Lugari Sub County in Kakamega County to Naitiri in the neighbouring Tongaren Sub County in Bungoma County.
They said transport along the road had become almost impossible due to its bad status and that they had witnessed many accidents along the road. The boda boda operators said their business had been deleteriously affected by the state of the road arguing that most of their customers now fear travelling along the route on motorbikes, adding that as a result, the security situation in the area was likely to deteriorate as a number of youths have been forced to quit their businesses.
The operators who were also joined by other residents also dug huge trenches across the road. They said that despite presenting their complaints to the leaders from the area, no step has been taken. “We have chosen to dig this trench and plant banana stems to register our disaffection, we have tried to present our complaints to our leaders but it’s all in vain for there has been no progress on their side,” they said.
Furthermore, the boda boda operators threatened to stop paying the Kshs 30 daily levy
until all roads in the area are rehabilitated. “Each one of us is contributing Kshs 780 to the County government every month and with a total of over 3,000 motorbikes operating within Lugari Sub County alone, that is a lot of money which can be used to rehabilitate
our roads. We cannot continue to pay levies to the County government while services they were expected to offer deteriorated,” argued an agitated bodaboda operator.
