Commuters stare at transport chaos ahead of new rules

Politics and policy

Matatus lined up for inspection at the Motor Vehicle Inspection workshop on Wednesday. Matatus are expected to meet new rules by April 1. Photo/Jeff Angote 

By GERALD ANDAE and MAGDALENE WANJA

In Summary

• PSVs required to remove roof racks, instal digital speed governors by Tuesday.
• Under the new rules, all public service vehicles must belong to a sacco that has at least 30 vehicles.
• All the public service vehicles will be required to remove roof racks to avoid putting cargo on vehicle tops.

Only 400 saccos have complied with the tough traffic laws out of the 700 public transport companies in the country ahead of the Tuesday deadline.

The National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA) said nearly 60 per cent of the co-operative societies have met the new rules meant to reduce road carnage and streamline public transport.

NTSA chairman Lee Kinyanjui told the Business Daily on Thursday that the authority will not extend the deadline, a move that could disrupt transport countrywide if the 300 saccos do not move with speed to comply with the rules.

“We are not the ones who imposed the deadline; this was agreed amongst all the stakeholders. It is unfortunate that the operators want to request for more time when they had almost four months to meet the requirements,” said Mr Kinyanjui.

Under the new rules, all public service vehicles must belong to a sacco that has at least 30 vehicles.

All the public service vehicles will be required to remove roof racks to avoid putting cargo on vehicle tops. Saccos on long distance routes must have a fleet management system and data from it must be stored for at least six months.

That system must be able to record the speed and location of a vehicle at any given time.

Matatu owners protested the new rules, adding that country has a shortage of speed governors and tracking devices capable of storing data for six months.

“There are only 15 companies that have been approved to issue the speed gadgets, their capacity is too small to meet the needs of over 100,000 vehicles within this short period,” said Dickson Mbugua, the chairman of the matatu welfare association.

Mr Mbugua said they will seek a meeting with the Minister for Transport to seek an extension of the deadline.

READ: New rules take the shine off matatu business

It will also be mandatory for the transporters to keep passenger manifests. Those who wish to have their vehicles on the roads overnight will be required to hire two drivers for every vehicle.

Each driver must not work more than eight hours. The new rules were submitted to the National Assembly for scrutiny last week and Parliament Wednesday paved way for their implementation.

In Nakuru, the motor vehicle inspection centre was overwhelmed by the high number of PSVs as the owners struggled to meet the deadline.

The officer in charge of inspection at the centre, William Chelimo said that they were receiving up to a 100 public service vehicles per day, extending the working hours to late in the night.