• CEO says cartels could be behind decision to blacklist firm.
Image: FILE
Digital matatu company Little Shuttle has urged NTSA to engage in dialogue following the authority's decision to blacklist it.
The company in a statement on Monday said it was unfair for NTSA to blacklist it and invalidate its operating licence for issues that could be resolved.
CEO Kamal Budhabhatti said the blacklisting was not NTSA's doing but a result of "pressure from cartels" who run the public transport sector.
NTSA blacklisted Little shuttle alongside Swvl for what it termed illegal operation of PSV businesses.
The authority said while the two had acquired tours service licences, they had been found to be running PSV vehicles within Nairobi, contrary to the Safety and Transport Act.
Director general Francis Meja said NTSA would review the licences of the two companies only if they adhere to the regulations.
But Budhabhatti said the shuttles they hail on their app are from their partners who are properly licenced.
"I have no quarrel with the authorities. They are doing their job as per what is listed in their bible. However I would have appreciated that they open a dialogue with technology companies like us on how to work together and change the face of public transportation in our country," he said.
Budhabhatti said the two companies have been running the services for the last three quarters and proved that public transport can be operated in an efficient and profitable manner.
"A manner that can bring sanity in the chaotic public transport in our city," he said.
He said over the months the company has worked on its technology and came up with ingredients to solve the current situation in the matatu sector and that effort cannot go in vain.
"I am not sure is the decision to stop us was from the authorities or they were under pressure from the public transport cartels. Whatever the case, ..... we will not be running the services from October 1 till we get clearance," he added.
Budhabhatti argued that when M-Pesa was discovered, there were no regulations but rather than kill the idea, Central Bank looked at ways to make the product better by formulating a legal model.
"I would have appreciated a similar approach on this matter and I pray that it happen," he said.