#ushenzi

In studio with Ken Njiru, founder of the Ungwana Initiative, discussing what he terms as "a changed gear" in Kenyan society. Read more about why the Ungwana Initiative is important.

On a trip to Tz sometime back, me & my partner noticed a trend : the boda boda operators were very disciplined & cordial. We know Tz guys are very cordial but we wondered why they boda guys never wanted to carry to pax as often happens in Kenya. (The same applies in Kampala, we noted later). So on one trip we convinced a boda guy to carry the two of us. 200mtrs, or maybe 100mtrs into our trip & voila, other boda guys came blocking us. Their task; to stop us from breaking the law. It was very dramatic I should add. At first we thought we were in for it, then it turns out, they wanted to discipline their fellow boda guy. He was fined some quid, and put on curfew for a few hours. As we say in Kenya, punishment pap! And so we realized why the earlier ones had all refused to do more than one! They have laws and its the people who 'police' themselves. They have police, active ones with jails & all, but I bet they deal with more serious concerns. Minor traffic issues, the community deals. So next time you see someone drop stuff on the ground, consider let him know its your city he is defacing. You live in it, you feel pissed its been made dirty. Before waiting for kanjoo, ask him to be mindful next time. -society-policing