Governor Kidero insists ban on matatus in CBD remains

Nairobi Governor Dr. Evans Kidero insists the order to ban all commuter matatus from the Nairobi Central Business District in a bid to de-congest the city still stands.

Kidero says the county government will not relent in its bid to restore order in the city.

Through his twitter account, Kidero said: “We will still have drop off and pick up points in designated areas. Overlapping will not be tolerated! This is criminal.”

The Governor insists that discipline will be restored on city roads and motorists parking anywhere will face the full force of the law.

Kidero, however, says he is open for talks with the operators but all matatus will have to revert to their earlier termini.

The order comes even as Matatu Welfare Association is holed up in a meeting to discuss the next course of action to protest the move.

The association had threatened to paralyze transport Thursday but called off the planned strike to allow for consultations.

According to the Matatu Welfare Association chair Dickson Mbugua, the strike was called off after the Transport CS James Macharia, his Interior counterpart Joseph Nkaissery and City Hall agreed to meet them to resolve the licensing crisis.

On Wednesday, matatu operators were up in arms after Nairobi City County Askaris started enforcing the ban.

The matatus’s, mainly those picking and dropping passengers along Tom Mboya and Ronald Ngala streets, were impounded by the County askaris who wanted them to operate from gazetted bus stops in the city.

The operators were lamenting that relocating them will adversely affect their businesses since they have no alternative areas to operate from.

“We know that this is a tough process, but we will have to push it through in order to create sanity in the CBD. We urge business people to be patient as we put in place measures to decongest the CBD,” said the Transport, Roads and Public Works CEC Mohammed Abdullahi.

The move is the latest in a series of measures that Governor Kidero has attempted to put in place to help de-congest the city centre.