Board likely to extend registration deadline in new matatu directive

The Transport Licensing Board could extend the deadline for matatu owners and operators to register savings and credit cooperative societies in line with the new directive.

The board’s chief executive officer, Cosmas Ngeso, said this would be done to allow the operators more time to comply with the directive before their current licences expire.

“We are consulting on whether to give them one more month. The registration is still going on across the country and we are happy at the pace,” said Mr Ngeso.

He said by last Friday, more than 100 saccos had been registered, though it would be difficult to know how many would represent all of Kenya’s matatus.

Matatu lobby groups, which support the move, had asked for more time for the registration.

Matatu Owners Association chairman Simon Kimutai told the Nation in an earlier interview licensing matatus under saccos would introduce discipline.

“We have existing saccos such as 2NK, 4NTE, Neno Sacco, Mololine and from what we have seen it is the right way to go. Saccos oblige members to obey the rules,” said Mr Kimutai.

He said this would also discourage and drive away intruders such as Mungiki and other illegal groups.

Saccos organise their activities in such a way that even the matatu crew will have to be recognised and vetted before they are allowed to operate on the route.

Mr Dickson Mbugua, who heads the Matatu Welfare Association, had asked the ministry to extend the registration period as 90 per cent of the operators were ready to comply with the directive.

The registration of the saccos is one aspect of the two-pronged approach aimed at eventually removing the 14-seater matatus from the Kenyan roads.

There shall also be no licensing of new 14-seaters starting this month. The aim is to let the existing ones fade away as they age.

This was formally announced by the board in a notice on December 23, as the ministry embarked on an ambitious phase of reforms in the trouble-ridden sector.

TLB, a statutory body under the Transport ministry, is encouraging migration to higher capacity public transport vehicles.

A group of matatu owners have since gone on to court to have the directive quashed.