- Malombe issued smart licences to 783 trained boda boda riders.
- He urged riders to join Saccos for savings and access to credit.
- Only 21 per cent of Kitui’s 13,598 riders have licences.
Kitui County Governor Julius Makau Malombe has issued smart driving licences to 783 boda boda operators who completed road safety and professional riding training. The event took place on Tuesday, August 4, 2026.
Governor Malombe was the chief guest at the licence issuance event, held at the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI) Kitui Regional Research Centre. An estimated seven thousand boda boda operators attended the colourful function.
The Kitui County government trained the 783 riders through the County Roads, Transport and Public Works Ministry’s Transport and Boda Boda Department.
Addressing the crowd, the governor explained the training’s completion rate. “We started the training with some 1,200 boda boda riders but 417 of them did not continue to complete up the training. The 783 who have completed the training account for about 66 per cent of the 1,200 number,” he said.
The governor spoke about the importance of the boda boda sector in Kenya, and also about the value of savings and credit cooperative organisations (SACCOs). He urged the Kitui County boda boda riders to form Saccos so they could benefit from them.
“Please do so for you to be self-reliant. If you join the boda boda sector and you take it seriously you will prosper,” he told them.
He noted that boda boda riders are the county’s biggest road users. “You the Kitui County’s boda boda riders are the ones who use the county’s roads a lot. About 85 per cent of the transport in the Kitui County is by the boda bodas,” the governor added.
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He also praised the impact of Saccos more broadly. “The saccos have made so many Kenyans including the teachers to prosper a lot,” he said.
Malombe added that the county government allocates money for the boda boda sector every year. “We in the leadership have the responsibility to ensure that we have empowered our people,” he said.
The governor asked the riders to reject goonism in the county. “Make your sector professional. Do respect it,” he told them. He said Kitui has established structures that other counties visit for benchmarking, and thanked the sector’s leadership for building them.
A county survey found that Kitui has 13,598 registered boda boda riders in total. Of these, 13,567 are male, representing about 97.6 per cent, and 31 are female, representing a small share of the total.
“So this sector has no good number of the female in the county,” Malombe said, encouraging more women to join. “The women can do what men do,” he added.
The governor said only about 21 per cent of Kitui’s boda boda riders currently operate with licences, while some 79 per cent operate without them. “Let us make sure that those who are operating without licences have got the licences,” he said.
He added that he was continuing a county tour to officially commission completed projects.
Earlier in the day, Governor Malombe officially launched the multi million Kitui Town Traffic Lights, installed by the Kitui County government.
By Boniface mull
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