‘Fire Mama!’ How women are rising through Kenya’s motorbike taxi ranks.
When Ellen Najala rides her motorcycle through the streets of Dandora, one of Nairobi’s crowded informal settlements, people stop and stare. As she cruises past on her blue bike, with a Jesus decal on the fender, a pot leaf sticker on the gauges, and “Fire Mama” scrawled on the gas tank, kids and adults alike wave and call out.
“Fire Mama, Fire Mama!”
Ms. Najala is one of an increasing number of young women who have joined the ranks of Kenya’s bodaboda sector – an army of motorcycle taxi drivers that props up the often chaotic public transit serving Nairobi’s roughly 4 million residents.
The work of drivers, whether along the potholed pavements of Nairobi or
