Nairobi needs three or four large and disciplined players working on well-spelt out performance targets and providing scheduled services at affordable rates to the residents of the capital city.
I am not opposed to the idea of allowing entry of National Youth Service buses into Nairobi’s commuter service market.
Last week, the director of the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) Francis Meja, informed a Senate parliamentary committee that the NYS had been given a licence to operate a service within Nairobi.
Whichever way you look at it and depending on the number of buses NYS wants to deploy, such a major investment in Nairobi’s commuter service market is a welcome development.
The entry into the scene of one big player in the chaotic market makes a great deal of sense.
It is good for policy because the beauty of dealing with a single large formal player is that, as a government, you can sit and plan routes together and agree on such things as the number of buses to run during holidays, the buses that must be operated during off-peak hours, and the number that must be dedicated to airports and hospitals.
You can even sign service-level agreements to commit the service provider to giving a certain quality of service.
Still, bringing in the NYS into the fray cannot be the long-term answer to the chaos in the capital city’s commuter market.
Nairobi needs three or four large and disciplined players working on well-spelt out performance targets and providing scheduled services at affordable rates to the residents of the capital city.
We made a big mistake when we allowed Kenya Bus Service to die.
Indeed, KBS collapsed principally because of a hostile and unfair competition environment that was so badly skewed in favour of matatus.
Consider the following: as a matatu operator, you were at liberty to charge the same fares as KBS.
But to your advantage, you did not have to bear the costs which KBS had obligations to bear under service-level agreements signed with the City Council of Nairobi such as having to maintain a training school for drivers, installing speed governors, buying uniforms for drivers and conductors, and providing medical insurance for employees.
What obtains right now is an environment where an investor with plans to establish a modern commuter service company in Nairobi with time-tables, fixed routes, large service depots, and a fleet of chase cars cannot survive.
The rain started beating us when after killing KBS, which was the only formal player in Nairobi’s commuter market, we left the same market to be run with individuals with the mentality of the hawker and the mitumba (second-hand good) trader.
From the trends we are witnessing today, it should not surprise if we started seeing donkey and rickshaws in the streets of the capital city.
Matatus can stop anywhere to pick up passengers, park on pavements, overtake on the wrong side, and will hoot loudly in the no-honking zones.
Without a doubt, the matatu industry is here to stay. But if we want to improve the quality of public transport in our capital city, it would be foolhardy for us to stake the future growth of Nairobi’s commuter sector to this chaotic mode of transport.
Nothing illustrates the matatu chaos better than that phenomenon know as the matatu tout.
He is loud in a menacing way, and is quick to show the middle finger to other motorists, especially those who try to resist his ways.
Without reference to any authority, matatu touts organise themselves into vicious cartels practising restrictive practices.
They have given unto themselves powers to levy charges on operators and new entrants and operate as if they were a parallel revenue authority.
In many cases, disputes between cartels fighting for control of specific routes will erupt into protracted violence, threatening widespread urban insecurity.
The irony is that resented as they are, matatus are still by far the most popular mode of transport.
Commuters prefer them to big buses because of their corner-cutting ways and the fact that they will take you to your destination faster.
Dealing with the matatu problem will require much more than a quick-fix.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
