NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 9- Kisumu Bus Terminus was a beehive of activities Monday as buses and matatus started ferrying passengers in full capacity.
The move followed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the government and matatu operators who said they had suffered losses in the past year since March 2020 when COVID-19 restrictions were introduced.
The bus terminus that had remained largely deserted was a beehive of activity as passengers scrambled for available buses.
The situation was the same across the country.
A matatu crew checks temperature of a passenger at KENCOM bus stage in Nairobi on August 9, 2021. /MOSES MUOKI.
Otieno Akuom, a clerk at the Kisumu Siaya route said most vehicles pulled out of business due to stringiest measures announced by the Ministry of Health to contain the spread of the virus after they were required to carry half or three quarters of their capacity.
“We hardly made good money during the ban and most of our people working in the transport sector could walk home empty handed on most days,” he said.
He said that with the enforcement of curfew hours that sometimes runs from 7pm to 4am, the sector had suffered massive losses.
“All the vehicles are now back on the road, Modern Coast that withdrew all their fleet from the road is back in business, plying the Busia-Mombasa route,” he said.
The number of passengers travelling had tripped Monday as the bus terminus was full due to the back to school race.
A driver, Bernard Rolomosa of Transline Services said that the pandemic had caused massive losses.
Rolomosa added that they were strictly observing the rules, carrying a maximum of 7 passengers even as parents struggled to reach schools for the admission of Form Ones.
Plying, Kisii, Kisumu, Nairobi route, Rolomosa said they have also reverted to their initial fares assuring passengers of reduced cost of travelling.
“We had many challenges during the ban, now we have normalized our fares,” he said. Most operators had increased fares to compensate for the empty seats.
Washington Okidi, an agent for the Transline Services said they increased fares on the Kisumu-Kisii route to Sh600 but have now reduced it Sh400.
Okidi stated that they were forced to increase the fares since the number of passengers was reduced yet the cost of fuel was maintained and sometimes hiked.
