To put any city or country on the move, a well-structured public transport system is believed to be the silver bullet.
This is not the case for Kenya, but, somehow, it moves — albeit sluggishly —with a haphazard transport system. Even though there have been efforts to bring order in the sector, the zeal has always fizzled out due to interests of cartels running the sector, matatu owners, law enforcers and, to a larger extent, politics.
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Failure to have government-owned vehicles and lack of interest in learning from best practices have also prevented the chaotic system from transforming into a better and reliable sector.
Unreliability, hooliganism and recklessness have been the sector’s signature for ages. Because of this, most middle and upper class citizens prefer private cars – a factor blamed for traffic jams.
The chaos has put Nairobi and Kenya at large at number three among places with the worst public transport in the world.
Leading entertainment platform TheRichest.com describes the Kenyan situation as challenging for citizens and far more inconvenient for visitors.
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“If you get onto a matatu, remember there is no guarantee that you’ll actually be taken to your intended destination,” it says.
“If a matatu driver has fewer passengers on the route he’s on and spots a crowd of people waiting on the other way, he can, and will, unceremoniously drop you off, take a U-turn and zip off to where the money is.” It added that operators are unruly, rude and unconcerned about rules or safety.
Seven years ago, Rwanda was in a similar situation of matatu madness — unreliable transport and a litany of passenger complaints. The sector was difficult to regulate. Today, the country runs one of the most efficient, orderly, reliable and best public transport systems in Africa.
The transformation began when Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (Rura) - equivalent to the NTSA - forced public transport players to form companies and cooperatives like the Kenyan saccos.
Rura partnered with the cooperatives to develop rules and regulations that were fully and continuously implemented to streamline the sector. In 2013, all operators were forced to migrate from 14-32-seater vans and minibuses to high-capacity luxurious buses.
For each route, a tender was awarded to the best bidder. The buses have less than five minutes as lag time for dropping and picking passengers at each terminus. Rwanda has implemented a cashless payment system.