The Matatu Welfare Association says the fare increase in this peak season is justifiable but urged against excessive increases that will hurt passengers.
An expensive Christmas awaits travellers this year as the cost of tickets have started going up just a few days to the beginning of the festive season.
The 11-seater shuttles have already increased the fares from the usual Sh1,000 for the Nairobi to Kitale route to Sh1,500 with the cost expected to even increase further in the coming days as the Christmas approaches.
The Matatu Welfare Association has said the fare increase in this peak season is justifiable but urged against excessive increases that will hurt passengers.
“It is normal that the fares would always go up during the festive season to compensate for an empty trip that the passenger vehicles will be making on their way back. However, we urge PSVs not to judge abnormal fares,” said the association chairman Dickson Mbugua.
Mr Mbugua said an upward adjustment of up to 50 per cent is acceptable to make the vehicles to operate profitably.
Easy Coach Company, however, is during the festive season maintaining the same fares that it has been charging over the years.
“We are not going to change our fares. They have remained the same in the last four years as we care about the citizens,” said Easy Coach managing director Azym Dossa.
Mr Dossa said the company does not want to burden Kenyans in the wake of high cost of living that has been witnessed over the recent past.
He pointed out that most of the buses on the routes that they ply have already been filled up with no space between December 22 and 25.
Easy Coach operates a fleet of buses mainly to western Kenya region and the MD says that they will be adding more buses on the roads to meet the demand.
A lot of Kenyans travel up country for Christmas and New Year celebrations creating an increase in demand of transport, which in turns lead to hike in fares.
The Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) trains have been fully booked between Mombasa and Nairobi and vice versa following high demand from passengers seeking to use the train services.
The move prompted the Kenya Railways to increase the number of coaches to accommodate more passengers during this festive season.
The Kenya Railways acting managing director Philip Mahinga told Shipping and Logistics early this month that the coaches will be increased to 14 from nine for economy class passengers in the next three weeks.
The two coaches for first class passengers, however, will remain the same in the new service regime set to take effect starting December 24.
The train is currently pulling nine coaches (1,062 passengers) on economy class and two coaches (138 passengers) on the first class.
“We will be adding five more coaches on the Madaraka express train starting December 24 to December 27 to accommodate more passengers during the festive season.” said Mr Mahinga.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
