Kenya’s boda-boda taxis are unruly in life—and death

Death may mean eternal silence, but you can hear the funeral of a Kenyan boda-boda driver (a motorbike taxi man) from miles away. Music blasts from loudspeakers that have been mounted on the hearse (a flower-laden minibus), as the shouts of mourners compete with the honks of passing lorries and the toots of dozens of boda-bodas that make up the raucous procession.Such send-offs are common. Last year 1,634 boda-boda drivers and their passengers died in accidents on , according to official figures. Yet their rowdy funerals are not just a sign of the dangers they face (and cause). They also mark changes in Kenyan society that, among other things, are rejigging the conventional calculus.