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.
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.
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