Sakaja revives plan to ban matatus from Nairobi CBD

Plans to decongest Nairobi City centre have started again, about three years after a similar move flopped.

This was part of the agenda during a meeting that brought together matatu sacco representatives, police and county officials at Chatter Hall, Nairobi.

In the closed-door meeting, other issues including the number of matatu picking and dropping points in the CBD.

“We usually meet to deliberate on some issues that the county governor is planning before they are implemented,” John Kibe, one of the sacco representatives, said.

He added “One of the issue raised is the plans to decongest the city centre by doing away with dropping points and picking points,”

Another sacco manager said this means matatus will only be allowed to drop the passengers at specific locations and exit the city centre in about five minutes.

“Only one matatu from a sacco will be allowed to pick passengers at a time, this will be another approach of doing away with picking points at the city centre that is said to be causing congestion,”

He added, “we have not been given a timeline because the traffic department and county are yet to develop system that will be used to alert matatus outside the city centre to come and pick the passengers,”

Some matatu operators said if the plans succeed it will be a win for all the stakeholders insisting that more deliberations will be made before the final decision.

This came at a time when hawkers were kicked out from the city centre and directed to operate from the backstreet lanes in a move that sparked a clash between them and some matatu operators who usually park on some lanes.

For this reason, some  matatu saccos blocked some areas of the city centre last week in protest accusing the hawkers of taking over their spaces.

It is said that the ongoing plans to restore sanity at the city is backed by the State House based on the recent remarks by President Ruto.

On January 26, the Head of State praised the initiatives undertaken by Governor Sakaja Johnson, which include the removal of overhanging signage from walkways, clearing hawkers from main streets and pedestrian paths, and general city cleaning.

He termed the efforts as a step in the right direction, noting their potential to considerably change the city’s outlook.