For the tenth month in a row, not counting the many clean-ups on the beach, the responsible citizens of Malindi met for the usual Clean Up on the second Saturday of the month.
This time the Malindi Green And Blue movement, in finding the full cooperation of the police forces, brought to the street those who usually live there, the Kenyan motorbikes, the so-called Boda Boda Operators. The "bodabodas" are often in the eye of the storm because of their insubordination, the lack of respect for the rules but also as insane carriers of bad habits that result in congenital plagues of this country, such as early pregnancies (young girls who prostitute themselves to get free rides to school from motorcyclists, for example) and organized petty crime.
But fortunately not all bodabodas are like that, there are associations that work to be legal, they ask their members to have all the licenses and to equip themselves with a helmet and jacket, as well as to have an impeccable conduct. There are about 1500 of them, few considering that the total number of motorcycles in the district of Malindi is at least thirty times higher and that almost all of them, at least occasionally, carry people.
In the Clean Up in January, the president of the Boda Boda Operators association joined us and sensitized its members to do the same. With good peace and a good lesson to the other unsuspecting and unsuspecting bikers met on the route from the Roundabout to the Casino (the police closed the roads, Kenyatta Road and Lamu Road to traffic for two hours). The Onlus Mondo Solidale con Edipro gave the virtuous motorcyclists a hundred "Malindi Green And Blue" jackets.
A successful exercise, with tons of dirt collected, disreputable situations solved and a lot of unity.
Another step towards the common goal of arriving at stricter and more concrete laws on waste collection (the new agreement will be signed next week), separate waste collection and finally recycling.