Ban night travel by trucks instead: Mixed reactions greet NTSA directive

Stranded passengers in Kisii town wait for vehicles to take them back to Nairobi on January 1, 2018. They have been affected by NTSA's night travel ban. PHOTO | BENSON MOMANYI | NMG 

By WINNIE ATIENO

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Summary

• Firm says trucks are mostly to be blame for fatal accidents that have claimed more than 200 lives in the last month alone.
• PSV firms and stranded passengers term agency's move as unfair, harsh and too abrupt.
• The Matatu Owners Association has urged authorities to consider imposing bans on select bus companies that do not comply with traffic rules.

Some bus owners are urging the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) to also take action against all long-distance night travel by trucks in order to stem road carnage along major highways.

According to a Coast-based Public Service Vehicles (PSV) firm, trucks are mostly to blame for fatal accidents that have claimed more than 200 lives in the last month alone.

Coast Bus director, Adil Ijaz, termed the night travel ban imposed by NTSA as unfair, harsh and too abrupt, adding that passengers travelling back to Nairobi had been inconvenienced by the move.

“The ban has caused transport difficulties. Stop trucks from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. as opposed to buses. After all, we were never consulted over the night travel ban,” he said while blaming long-distance trucks driven carelessly along major highways for risking the lives of other road users.

A stranded passenger, Mary Tunje, who was travelling to Nairobi to take her son to school termed the ban as a knee-jerk reaction by government.

“It is unfair, we are suffering because we can’t travel overnight and it is very sad. Why should passengers bear the brunt? There are no busses...we don’t know how and when our children will travel back to school,” she decried.

READ: Bus operators term night travel ban punitive, threaten to sue NTSA

Consult stakeholders

Mr Ijaz reckons the transport agency should have sat with industry stakeholders to consult on how they could help curb deadly road accidents.

“NTSA should have given us time to adjust but they just slapped an immediate ban on us, as a result the buses that were travelling to Kisumu, Bungoma and Malaba had to spend the night at Mariakani,” he said while accusing the Authority of lacking proper planning.