Kenya is set to record the highest motorbike imports this year as use of the vehicles for employment and to ferry people both in urban and rural areas soars.
Registrations have surged by about 80% in the first seven months of this year, data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNS) s**ws.
As of July, according to the data, Kenya had imported 146,757 motorcycle units, up from 86,286 d****g the similar period last year.
The rise is unprecedented in the country as the machines swamp roads and alleyways in v***ages and urban areas.
D****g the period, the bulk of the machines, 19,875, were imported in July. Kenya has been importing an average of 16,500 units every month since January.
The high imports are attributed to the removal of a Ksh 10,335 (US$100) excise duty.
The duty, imposed in December 2015, was lifted in September 2016 following lobbying from ******s and manufacturers.
The excise duty, according to ******s, s**ok the motorcycles’ market, forcing a sharp decline in sales and risking jobs as prices went up.
The price of motorbikes has fallen to as low as Ksh 58,910 (US$570), from at least Ksh 184,170 (US$1,782) per piece years ago following the setting up of several motorcycle plants by Asian manufacturers.
Some of the firms that have plants or distribution centers in Kenya include Beiqi-Foton, Sky Go, Fly Boy, **nda, Bajaj and Yamaha.
Kenya in 2007 exempted motorcycles below 250cc from a 16% value added tax to spur job creation.
The move paid off.
The sector has enabled t**usands of youth operating low-cost motorbike taxis known as boda bodas across the east African nation to earn a decent living.
“We are so many of us and more are st*** coming into the sector but I cannot complain because the machines have offered me and others a job I could not get elsewhere,” said Moses Otanga, an operator in Kitengela, a suburb on the outskirts of Nairobi.
Like many others, he charges an average of Ksh 50 to ferry people to different places in the town making at least Ksh 1,034 daily.
With over 500,000 machines across the country, motorcycles are deeply entrenched in the lives of Kenyans and the economy, according to the Kenya Boda Boda ***ociation.
The ***ociation notes that the machines have created jobs for t**usands, improving standards of living for many **use**lds, besides easing transport challenges.
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“We promote the 24-**ur economy. We are the people w** ferry many **me even past midnight enabling them to work as long as they want wit**ut worrying about **w to get **me. We operate long after the p***enger service vehicles have gone **me,” says the ***ociation.
The motorbikes have also reduced the c***e rate since many youths in the Kenyan society now have a way to earn a living.
“We drive huge fuel sales. We are esti***** to be over 500,000 Boda Boda operators and with each of us fueling an average of fuel worth of Ksh 517 per day, we inject into the economy some Ksh 248.04 m***ion every day,” says the ***ociation.
Out of that, an average of Ksh 84.3 m***ion goes to the government in road levies and other charges the taxman imposes on fuel.
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