Genesis of chaos: How Nairobi's public transport system collapsed

Kenya Bus Service (KBS) started to operate a road commuter service in Nairobi in 1934. [Photo: Courtesy]

Public transport in Nairobi took a nosedive after the fall of scheduled bus services by the Kenya Bus Service and Nyayo Bus Services around the mid-1990s. This opened the door to the introduction of privately-owned matatus and marked the beginning of chaos in the sector.

With the rapid increase in population, a number of matatus came up to help fill the gap. With this came exploitation and disorder.

From the 1930s to the early 1970s, public transport in Kenya was without the chaos experienced today. The mode of transport then was buses, which ran on schedule, picking up and dropping off passengers at designated stops.

According to a study by Zachary Abiero-Gariy published by the University of Nairobi, the main causes of urban public transport problems in Nairobi include inadequacy and lack of proper maintenance of the transport infrastructural facilities, efficiency in traffic management and operations of the modes of public transport.

The research says Kenya Bus Service (KBS) started to operate a road commuter service in Nairobi in 1934, with only 13 buses on 12 routes. The city population then was 50,000. By 1954, the same number of buses were just enough to serve the existing population's public transport needs.

Most residential areas like Pangani, Muthurwa and Pumwani were within walking distance to the central area, hence walking was a predominant mode of commuting for quite a number of residents.

Meanwhile, as the demand for public transport increased over the years, KBS responded by extending the routes and increasing its fleet.

By 1964, KBS records indicated that the company was operating 106 buses carrying about 69,000 passengers daily. The World Bank estimates that by 1970, the number of buses per 1,000 of the population in Nairobi was 1.5.

In 1986, Nyayo Bus Service Corporation (NBS) started as a Government commuter service in Nairobi aimed at supplementing the already overstretched KBS and other modes of public transport. Initially, former President Daniel Moi launched the service with only six buses in October 1986, but the number of buses quickly rose to 16.

The number of buses was increased to 38 in 1987. In less than two-and-a-half years since its inception, the fleet has now grown to 142.

State corporation

In 1988, the Government Bus Services came under the management of a State corporation. The NBS Corporation was constituted and gazetted on July 22, 1988, stipulating that it would be run under the umbrella of the National Youth Service (NYS) and in the 1990s, the fleet boasted more than 300 vehicles, expanding from Nairobi to other regions.

However, the success story would soon turn to despair, and NBS is now remembered as yet another Government white elephant. Six years after its birth, the majority of buses would be out of service most of the time, while new ones would sit at NYS for weeks waiting for official commissioning.

In 2013, The Standard reported that by 1975, out of the 367 buses countrywide, only 55 were operational, with the others “either collapsed or vandalised”.

The article said 89 un-built chassis, donated by the Belgium government through a credit purchase scheme in 1990, were stored in the open and were going to waste at the corporation’s headquarters in Ruaraka.