There will be no parking of matatus in Nairobi’s Central Business District (CBD) in a new move by the Nairobi County Government meant to help decongest the city. This is a directive issued by the Nairobi Governor Dr. Evans Kidero to all matatu operators who until yesterday were carrying out their operations within the CBD.
Following this directive, all matatus have been ordered to move from areas within the CBD that are not gazetted for matatu operations to the designated areas. This now means that from today, matatus will be spending close to 20 minutes each at the bus station for the passengers to board.
Some quarters however, argue that this move will create confusion within the city as the matatu operators have been given a very short period to adjust their operations but the claims have been refuted by the County Government of Nairobi.
In the recent months, the County Government through Dr. Evans Kidero has been initiating several measurements in an effort to try and decongest the city but all have appeared to be failing. The first move was the abolition of the roundabouts in an effort to try and ease the traffic jams on the city roads. Instead of reducing the traffic jams, the move doubled the jam and had to be revoked. The next move was the introductions of the yellow boxes that were meant to direct motorists within the town. One month later the confusion still reigns and most motorists do not even know how the yellow boxes work.
Nairobi City is the most densely populated cities in the countries and the one inhabited by most car owners. The move by the government to try and do away with small capacity vehicles and introduce the use of buses only long failed before even taking off.
Article by Juma Fred.