Editorials

EDITORIAL: Make traffic plan viable

sonko

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Judging by the quick about turn that Governor Mike Sonko made on Monday, the Nairobi county government’s plan to bar matatus from entering the central business district appears not to have been well thought out.

Mr Sonko’s decision to suspend the action in the face of opposition from matatu operators shows the city government was ill prepared for the intended action.

Without a doubt, Nairobi needs a proper strategy to get rid of the matatu chaos - including road obstruction and noise pollution – that have thrived in it for so long. However, governing by fiat will most likely not work.

The viable option would be to engage all parties upfront so that a solution that is good for everyone and is easily implementable can be arrived at. 

READ: Matatus get one month to continue accessing CBD

Notably, this is not the first attempt to push matatus out of the CBD — and the county should have taken lessons from past mistakes to find a way forward.

More importantly, there should be clarity of the action and what it intends to achieve, not merely announcing that matatus will move to new bus termini outside the CBD without assessing the capacity of the assigned places to serve the purpose or even whether they offer convenience for commuters.

The new termini should be able to accommodate these without creating new bottlenecks and congestion.