Your life is dearer than your hair
Jun 23, 2004
Once in a while laws are passed that could end up saving our lives. However, this is not how the public always perceives it. Laws are often looked at as oppressive, exploitative and in the interest of the state against the people.
By Chibita wa Duallo
Once in a while laws are passed that could end up saving our lives. However, this is not how the public always perceives it. Laws are often looked at as oppressive, exploitative and in the interest of the state against the people.
The regulations recently announced concerning traffic control are a case in point. Wearing a seat belt could save your life in case of an accident.
Drinking and driving could easily lead to an accident and loss of life, just like talking on the phone while driving.
Motorcyclists are advised to wear helmets while operating their cycles. The point is that in case of an accident, the head will be protected when the cyclist falls off the machine.
Previously, there were very few motorcycles in towns and the countryside as a whole. Today, there are likely to be as many, if not more, motorcycles, a.k.a. boda bodas than motor vehicles.
A good portion of the population uses the cycles as means of transport. They are agile, convenient and fast in slow traffic. This is both a blessing and a curse. The number of bones broken and lives lost due to boda boda accidents must have moved the concerned officials into action.
In a bid to regulate this mode of transport and make it safer, the wearing of helmets by the riders has been made compulsory and likely to attract legal sanctions. This was to be expected since, as already explained, it is a way of reducing injury. Helmets are not like hats or caps. They are not comfortable and stylish to wear. In fact they are a great burden on the wearer. However, they save lives and most people riding motorcycles will endure them.
The major problem seems to emanate from the provision that requires each boda boda rider not to have just one helmet but two –– the extra one for the passenger. After all, why should the rider wear protection, while leaving his passenger exposed to danger? yet this attempt to safeguard passengers from injury is what has attracted the loudest and most protracted ridicule and protest, not just from operators of the motor cycles but also from their passengers!
One was heard to complain that suppose a helmet had just been worn by a fishmonger fresh from catching Nile perch, how was she, Nakamatte, expected to don the same fishy helmet? The cyclists may have to be armed with soap and air freshener to treat the helmet after one passenger disembarks and before another one wears it.
The other complaint was about hair. Many of the boda boda customers are ladies to and from salons. After spending a whole day under a drier in a salon doing hair, especially the wet look style, how can one spoil the day’s work and expenditure by willingly wearing a helmet?
Of course boda boda transport is not compulsory. If one has to protect her hair, why not take a matatu or better still, walk? Isn’t life supposed to be more valuable than hair?
Even if a helmet messed up the wet look and you are alive, it might be better than being dead with a smart wet look! Additionally, pity the gentleman who has to don that helmet after a wet-look passenger has just used the helmet. The man may have just had a shaolin cut, i.e. with all the hair off. Apart from having to do a lot of explaining to his wife at home, the mess on his head will not endear him to helmets. Then one person raised the issue of fungal infection on some people’s heads, a.k.a. biguna. These are supposed to be contagious or is it infectious?
The doctors may have to tell us about the incubation period of a kiguna in order to determine the safe length of time to be under a helmet! There is one major alternative to all these inconveniences. Each potential customer of a boda boda could invest in a helmet. Each person would have their personalised ones, which they can wear whenever the need arises. This way, no fishy smell, no risk of residue from wetlooks and no biguna!
Compared to the risk of losing one’s life or grievously injuring ones head, all these small inconveniences pale in seriousness. After all, the average boda boda ride is only about 15 minutes.
Being inconvenienced for 15 minutes in order to escape injury and possibly save life is not too much to endure.
Ends
Once in a while laws are passed that could end up saving our lives. However, this is not how the public always perceives it. Laws are often looked at as oppressive, exploitative and in the interest of the state against the people.
The regulations recently announced concerning traffic control are a case in point. Wearing a seat belt could save your life in case of an accident.
Drinking and driving could easily lead to an accident and loss of life, just like talking on the phone while driving.
Motorcyclists are advised to wear helmets while operating their cycles. The point is that in case of an accident, the head will be protected when the cyclist falls off the machine.
Previously, there were very few motorcycles in towns and the countryside as a whole. Today, there are likely to be as many, if not more, motorcycles, a.k.a. boda bodas than motor vehicles.
A good portion of the population uses the cycles as means of transport. They are agile, convenient and fast in slow traffic. This is both a blessing and a curse. The number of bones broken and lives lost due to boda boda accidents must have moved the concerned officials into action.
In a bid to regulate this mode of transport and make it safer, the wearing of helmets by the riders has been made compulsory and likely to attract legal sanctions. This was to be expected since, as already explained, it is a way of reducing injury. Helmets are not like hats or caps. They are not comfortable and stylish to wear. In fact they are a great burden on the wearer. However, they save lives and most people riding motorcycles will endure them.
The major problem seems to emanate from the provision that requires each boda boda rider not to have just one helmet but two –– the extra one for the passenger. After all, why should the rider wear protection, while leaving his passenger exposed to danger? yet this attempt to safeguard passengers from injury is what has attracted the loudest and most protracted ridicule and protest, not just from operators of the motor cycles but also from their passengers!
One was heard to complain that suppose a helmet had just been worn by a fishmonger fresh from catching Nile perch, how was she, Nakamatte, expected to don the same fishy helmet? The cyclists may have to be armed with soap and air freshener to treat the helmet after one passenger disembarks and before another one wears it.
The other complaint was about hair. Many of the boda boda customers are ladies to and from salons. After spending a whole day under a drier in a salon doing hair, especially the wet look style, how can one spoil the day’s work and expenditure by willingly wearing a helmet?
Of course boda boda transport is not compulsory. If one has to protect her hair, why not take a matatu or better still, walk? Isn’t life supposed to be more valuable than hair?
Even if a helmet messed up the wet look and you are alive, it might be better than being dead with a smart wet look! Additionally, pity the gentleman who has to don that helmet after a wet-look passenger has just used the helmet. The man may have just had a shaolin cut, i.e. with all the hair off. Apart from having to do a lot of explaining to his wife at home, the mess on his head will not endear him to helmets. Then one person raised the issue of fungal infection on some people’s heads, a.k.a. biguna. These are supposed to be contagious or is it infectious?
The doctors may have to tell us about the incubation period of a kiguna in order to determine the safe length of time to be under a helmet! There is one major alternative to all these inconveniences. Each potential customer of a boda boda could invest in a helmet. Each person would have their personalised ones, which they can wear whenever the need arises. This way, no fishy smell, no risk of residue from wetlooks and no biguna!
Compared to the risk of losing one’s life or grievously injuring ones head, all these small inconveniences pale in seriousness. After all, the average boda boda ride is only about 15 minutes.
Being inconvenienced for 15 minutes in order to escape injury and possibly save life is not too much to endure.
Ends