Uhuru pens order for metropolitan transport agency to ease traffic jams
President Uhuru Kenyatta. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
The Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (Namata) covers five counties including Nairobi City, Kiambu, Kajiado, Machakos and Murang’a.
Its creation is consequence of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in August 2013 between the national government through the Ministry of Transport and the five county governments.
It is designed to address the gap by providing a metropolitan area with a world-class public transport system.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has signed an executive order creating an agency whose mandate will be to ease traffic jams in Nairobi and satellite towns.
The Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (Namata) signed on Friday covers five counties of Nairobi City, Kiambu, Kajiado, Machakos and Murang’a.
“President Uhuru Kenyatta executed the Executive Order creating the Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority under the enabling provisions of the State Corporations Act,” State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu said in statement.
Its creation is consequence of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in August 2013 between the national government through the Ministry of Transport and the five county governments.
The body, as established by the President’s executive order, is an interim measure pending the enactment of a statute that will create a fully-fledged Authority with expanded powers and a broader mandate.
The agency will be tasked with establishing a mass transport system, commuter services and the public transport within Nairobi metropolis.
“Namata is a bold and visionary policy intervention that, for the first time in our nation’s history, provides a comprehensive and dynamic platform for addressing the decades-old challenges in the transport sector that have bedevilled the Metropolitan Area,” said State House spokesperson, Manoah Esipisu in a statement.
Urban mobility
“The Authority is a consequence of various presidential interventions and directives issued since 2013 that are geared towards positively redefining our nation’s capital as well as the wider Metropolitan Area that encompasses four other counties.”
Mr Esipisu said Namata is expected to address issues of decongesting Nairobi and its environs.
“The Authority will seek to develop a sustainable integrated public transport strategy based on the development of a sustainable urban mobility plan that will be the basis for the orderly and structured development of the proposed Metropolitan Area mass-transit system, which incorporates both bus rapid-transit and commuter rail,” he said.
The metropolitan area has experienced rapid growth over the past three decades but there has not been commensurate focus on providing sufficient and sustainable transport options for the area’s visitors and residents.
“Namata is designed to, at long last, address this gap and provide the Metropolitan Area with a world-class public transport system,” said the President’s spokesperson.
