Bodaboda Riders’ Behavior on Road Safety Socio-Economic Wellbeing of Lodwar Town Residents in Turkana County, Kenya

Abstract

The Bodabodas are associated with a significant accident risks and have led to public health epidemic. The Risky riders’ traffic behavior coupled with the tendency of the riders to operate like organized urban militia, have often been associated with disruption of socio-economic activities, road accidents, injuries and deaths. This study sought to explore the influence of Bodaboda Riders’ traffic Behaviour on Road Safety and the socio-economic wellbeing of Lodwar town residents. A cross-sectional study was conducted targeting 17,210 households in Lodwar town in Turkana County. The study employed descriptive research design that involved collection of both quantitative and qualitative data from residents, motorcycles riders, traffic police officers, and health care workers in Lodwar town. The quantitative data was analyzed by use of frequency counts and percentages cross-tabulations. The study also collected qualitative data from key informant interviews involving key stakeholders and was analysed using thematic analysis of the textual data. The survey data was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 23.This study showed that Road Safety and the socio-economic wellbeing were influenced by risky bodaboda riders’ traffic behaviors. The study established from the respondents that Bodaboda’s ownership and traffic behavior affected Road Safety and Socio-economic Wellbeing of residents of Turkana Central Sub County by X2, (4, N=335), P=.05. it was established that proportion of respondents to a large extent agreed that bodaboda business influenced Road Safety and Socio-economic wellbeing of residents by X2, (24, N=335), P<05. This implied there exists a statistically significant relationship between bodaboda business and Road Safety and Socio-Economic Wellbeing of residents of Turkana Central sub- County. Further, these findings hold the true reflections of bodaboda business is mushrooming in Kenya, thus it’s a positive indicator to a socio economic development in Turkana County.Finally, the study concluded that there are stakeholders that are supporting project interventions that seek to promote bodaboda socioeconomic wellbeing in their area,59.5% of the bodaboda riders indicated County Government through their policy regulations as stakeholders, 20.8% indicated private sector like SACOs as stakeholders, 8.9% indicated National Government through their legal framework as stakeholders, 6.0% indicated NGOs as stakeholders, and 8.8% of them indicated none as stakeholders. The study recommends that; Stakeholders in the bodaboda sector should set up rules and regulations to minimize the nature of bodaboda rider’s patterns of traffic behaviour that affect the Road Safety socio-economic wellbeing, Bodaboda riders should be educated on the negative impacts of their behaviors and how they affect household wellbeing, Bodaboda riders should be encouraged to venture into other development activities as a way of increasing their income, and Stakeholders should be sensitized on the importance of promoting bodaboda socioeconomic wellbeing.