The government has ordered all boda boda operators to register with the National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA) as it waives Sh5800 licence fees.

This move by the government aims at streamlining the boda boda industry by ensuring all boda boda operators and their motorbikes are registered for easy follow-ups.

The Interior Cabinet Secretary urged all the boda boda riders to work with the government and comply with the new directives.

Matiang'i emphasised every boda boda rider should be licensed during a meeting with security organs and representatives from the boda boda industry on Thurdsay.

"Every boda boda rider should be licenced, you will be registered for free. So there’s no Sh5,800 registration fee. We now want to insist that within the period of registration because we will open the book on 21st of March and we will do this exercise for 60 days consistently. Within those 60 days please ensure you have a smart rider’s licence," Matiang'i ordered.

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To fast track the process, NTSA has also said it will get up dedicated desks in all 52 Huduma Kenya centres.

"@ntsa_kenya will set up dedicated desks in all 52 @HudumaKenya centers to fast-track the process," NTSA said

Matiang’i also directed that all boda boda operators must register in SACCOs as the regional and county security teams will begin to vet boda boda riders afresh.

"We will also make sure that you belong to a SACCO. With the regional and county security teams, we will begin now vetting our boda boda riders afresh. There are those whose records we have at the DCI. We will start this vetting process afresh so that we can weed out those who want to taint our image," Matiang'i said.

Matiang’i also said the Ministry of Interior will begin a formal recognition and engagement with boda boda across all structures of administration.

The CS also instructed all regional and county commissioners to know regional and county boda boda chairpersons and hold monthly meetings with them.

“Every regional commissioner, if you finish your election structures and so on on the ground, every regional commissioner must know who is their regional chairperson of boda boda, every county commissioner must know who is their county boda boda chairperson. They must talk to them and hold meetings with them on a monthly basis,” the CS said.

This comes shortly after President Uhuru Kenyatta issued a nationwide crackdown on all boda bodas following an incident in which a female motorist was sexually assaulted by a group of boda boda operators on Friday along Forest Road.

Uhuru also ordered the boda bodas to be deregistered before a fresh registration exercise takes of in the entire country.