Touts and bodaboda operators have protested harassment by police officers in Nakuru County.
They held peaceful demonstrations in Nakuru town on Thursday over what they termed as humiliation by the government through the crackdown on non-compliant Passengers Service Vehicles (PSVs) and bodaboda.
While admitting that indeed the stringent measures to restore sanity on the roads are paramount, the demonstrators said there is a better humane way of implementing the same rather than applying force thereby rendering the majority of them jobless.
They said matatus are the "offices" where they get their daily bread and therefore the forcible crackdown is a worry to them.
Led by Clinton Ndenga, the touts and bodaboda operators called on Interior CS Fred Matiang’i to think about their welfare.
“We are tired of being harassed by police and if the government will not hear our cry then we shall revert to crime," Ndenga said.
The sentiments were echoed by Satellite Stage motorbike operators chairman Zablon Maina.
The bodaboda operators trade along Kanu Street in the outskirts of Nakuru town.
Maina said most youths who engage in bodaboda trade in the county especially Nakuru town and its environs have been rendered jobless due to police harassment.
“We as bodaboda operators are tired of police harassment, we need our voices to be heard,” Maina said.
Nakuru based activist Dr. Abdul Noor who joined the touts and motorbike operators in airing their grievances called on the government to rethink about the move to harass the many youths who are employed in the transport sector.
According to Dr. Noor, the youths who are now rendered jobless might revert to illegal activities in order to earn a living.
Noor said the situation might lead to increased insecurity in Nakuru County.
“It saddening that CS Matiang'i does not value our youths who are in the transport sector. If all these youths will be rendered jobless, then it means they will revert to illegal activities. I have written to the labor office, Regional Police commandant and our governor over the same,” Dr. Noor said.
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