Commuters wait to board buses in Nairobi/XINHUA-File
Kenya Country Buses Owners’ Association (KCBOA) Chairman Paul Muthumbi says that his members are moving to court to squash the night ban gazetted by the National Transport and Safety Authority.
Muthumbi says that the ban will result in the collapse of the sector and has urged the government to reconsider the prohibition.
“The KCBOA confirms that its more than 200 members support initiatives which are intended to improve road safety, however, it does not believe that the proposals for the night banning of PSVs as currently set out would be as beneficial as suggested and that this would very likely cause serious unintended repercussions in other sectors of the economy,” Muthumbi said.
He says the government should instead start talks with the industry players to avoid stalling the sector.
“Kenya’s transport capacity will be severely constrained. This ban came at a time when many passengers had already booked for night-time travel jeopardizing even other business people engaged in distant markets thus rendering the country’s exports uncompetitive and creating a huge transport liability for Kenya,” he said.
He says it’s also not clear what the status of their licenses will be because the government is offering temporary licenses.
He argued that they should be allowed to continue operating, so as to reduce the pressure on daytime travel adding that the ban has resulted in serious implications for PSV business turnover.
On the safety concerns that have been raised against PSV night travel, Muthumbi says that these issues need to be ironed out in multi-stakeholder engagements for the sector to come with meaningful and tangible remedies on the road menace.
The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) recently banned night travel by Public Service Vehicles in a bid to curb rising road accidents.
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