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{
"id": 881821,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/881821/?format=api",
"text_counter": 125,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) James Nyikal",
"speaker": {
"id": 434,
"legal_name": "James Nyikal",
"slug": "james-nyikal"
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"content": "owners just wake up in the morning and decide the routes to take. There is no proper fare regime. People wake up and decide that because it has rained, the fare will be this much, or there is a threat in Parliament that VAT is going to go up and, therefore, we are putting our fares up without any consideration of how they have been affected. We do not have designated embarking and disembarking points. These days, matatus and even buses stop anywhere, take people anywhere and drop off people anywhere. We cannot live like that. It is important to have designated points of alighting and boarding. That is the only way you can regulate the fares. If people stop, get in and get out anywhere, how are you going to regulate the fares? It is important that those disembarking points are structured: structures, platforms and sheds should be put in place. It is important for the safety of the people. Recently, we were discussing the issue of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). The places where buses drop off people and take them up do not take into consideration the law that protects people with disability. Even if you look at the PSVs, there are no guidelines on the structures of what the PSV should be. People import a van; transform it into a PSV without taking into consideration safety and security. We cannot go on like that. Even if you look at the private sector on its own, the people who own buses, matatus and even at individual level have no management structures. What stops a bus owner or a matatu owner from hiring conductors and drivers so as to have specific people assigned to a specific bus or a specific matatu so that, if there is a problem later, you can track and say it was this matatu at this time and this bus at this time? It is total chaos. The situation is even worse in the cities. In this city - some of my colleagues will know and others may not –all these matatu numbers we have, for example, Nos.11, 12, 28 were things that were put before Independence. Since Independence, nobody in this city has sat down to draw the routes that buses and matatus should follow in relation to estates that come up. There is no difference between distribution of water, electricity and transport that people need. We must look at how we organise the transport sector. In most countries, even in the rural areas, public, transport is either run by public entities or properly regulated with structures in getting what vehicle can be used for transport, what route they take, where they disembark and what time they leave. There is simply no timing. Some of us here may remember that there were times when a bus left Nairobi going to Kisumu and it would be clear that at a certain time, it would be in Naivasha, Nakuru and so on. You did not have to keep policemen on the road to say they are over-speeding because if they get to Nakuru before the time, obviously they were over-speeding. Those were self-regulating arrangements. All the NTSA does, the last time I saw them, is to wave down vehicles on the road, taking the place of traffic police. What we expect them to do is to sit down, look at the city and tell us the structures we need in Nairobi to move the people around. This is mass transport of people. You have to move people in a city and across the country. If they put in place those regulations and structures, the traffic police will help them to adhere to that. But we are not seeing that. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}