In sharp contrast to traffic snarl-ups on the Nyeri-Nairobi Highway on Christmas weekend, most passenger service vehicle stages had few vehicles and commuters.
As Kenyans travelled back to Nairobi and Nakuru cities, Nyeri town PSV stages did not have passengers and operators said they were making losses.
Francis Macharia, a matatu driver with 4NTE Sacco in Nyeri said that even with the high numbers of Kenyans travelling back to the city, most of the drivers are yet to make a profit.
"It is the second day after Christmas and most of us have not made any profit even with the high number of travellers. This has been our worst Christmas since fuel prices are very high," he said, adding that the high cost of living has also affected the matatu industry.
Evan Ndiuini, who was travelling with his family from Nyeri to Nairobi said he had paid Sh1000 from the city on Christmas eve and decided to travel back early so as not to pay high fares.
"We usually pay Sh450 to Nyeri from Nairobi but they charged me Sh1000 and that is why I went back before the fares were increased," he said.
Efforts by police to end traffic snarl-ups during the festive season have been lauded with a few incidents blamed on defective vehicles.
Central Region police commander Lydia Ligami said police officers along the highways managed to control traffic and end the gridlocks.
"The issues on overlapping have been resolved due to the presence of the police officers along the highways but the few incidents reported were caused by defective vehicles stalling on the road," she said.
Speaking when she supervised the police in Murang'a county controlling vehicles along the Thika-Kenol section of the highway, she said they have deployed enough police to control traffic during the holiday season.
The section between Kenol and Kambiti of the dual carriageway was opened on Christmas eve by KeNHA.
