Many stranded as State bans night-travel

By JAMES MBAKA and ISAAC MESO

Kenya: A directive by the Government to ban public service vehicles (PSV) from operating at night forced many Kenyans to spend their Christmas away from their loved ones.

Worst hit were those passengers who prefer travelling on Christmas Eve to their rural homes to join their families for the annual celebrations. Also many who thronged various bus termini in Nairobi hoping to catch buses on Christmas Day were forced to cancel their journey after spending hours on verandas as celebrations went on in their rural homes.

The directive was issued on Wednesday by Transport Principal Secretary Nduva Muli in line with new regulations gazetted on December 17, that require PSV operators who wish to operate at night to apply for a special licence.

This followed a grisly road accident that claimed 18 people when two buses collided head-on along the busy Mombasa-Nairobi highway in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

“I was supposed to leave Nairobi for Kisii at 9am but I am forced to stay here because those who did not travel last night took our seats on priority because they have been here the whole night,” Eric Ondieki told The Standard at a bus terminus in Nairobi on Christmas day. He was also skeptical of the new directive saying it will hurt long distance travellers.

“This is unfortunate of the Government to wait until the last minute to make a policy statement without thinkling of Kenyans wishing to join families for festivities,” Andimu said Bus companies on the other hand were counting loses plus the hustle of trying to calm down angry passengers who found it hard to absorb the inconvenience.

Modern Coast Nairobi Manager Mohamed Omar said they were caught unawares leading to a huge travel crisis at the bus terminus in the morning. “The night and day passengers are all coming to us at the same time and the buses are limited. So convincing them is tough. Accidents also happened during the day and I think the Government should have first removed all the trucks and not PSVs,” Omar complained.

He said on Wednesday evening the company was supposed to release 11 buses to Mombasa and two to Kampala Uganda, but that was not the case. “You can imagine how much we have lost. But we have no option, it’s the law.”

 Coast Bus Nairobi supervisor Mohamed Ali said despite the loss they are going to make, the person feeling the heat is the passenger. 

Meanwhile, Principal Secretary Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Nduva Muli said arrests would be made on all PSVs travelling at night since none of them had so far been issued with nighttime licenses and thus those that had been doing so are contravening the law.

At Easy Coach bus station, most passengers had to postpone their travel upcountry, as all daytime buses had been booked and were full to capacity. Those who had earlier booked for night travel had to seek alternative means of transport .