Bus operators term night travel ban punitive, threaten to sue NTSA
Buses and travellers at the Machakos Country Bus terminus in this picture taken on December 31, 2017. Most travellers who were to travel at night are stranded. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATIONA MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- She said traders usually buy their wares during the day and ferry them at night.
- Parents travelling with their children upcountry ahead of school opening were also affected.
- Food vendors at the bus station lamented that the night travel ban would impact heavily on their profits.
The decision to ban all long-distance night travel by public service vehicles by the National Transport and Safety Authority has caught most bus services and travellers by surprise.
There was confusion at the Machakos Country Bus Station after the ban with some bus services to the west of Kenya forced to suspend their travel for Sunday evening.
Hundreds of passengers who had booked buses hoping to travel on Sunday night were stranded at the bus station after the ban by NTSA took immediate effect.
Some bus services were even forced to refund travellers’ money.
“If the passengers are willing to wait until tomorrow morning, we will allow them to sleep in the bus. The ban has to be complied with,” said Juma Masinde, a clerk for Promise Bus Services.
NTSA imposed the ban after a bus accident at Migaa on the Nakuru-Eldoret highway claimed 36 lives Sunday morning.
TRANSPORTING WARES
The majority of those affected were business people transporting their wares to Western Kenya.
“We had bought our merchandise ready to transport it to Kakamega tonight. Waiting until tomorrow (Monday) will greatly will inconvenience us and our customers,” said a businesswoman going by the name Njeri who supplies motorcycle and power saw spare parts to shops in Kakamega and Bungoma towns.
The merchants, she said, usually buy their wares during the day and ferry them at night for the market day the following day.
“With this ban, we will be forced to set a day for purchasing the items and another day for transporting them to the destination. We will set aside a third day to supply them to the shops,” Njeri said, adding that the traders will incur other unnecessary costs.
Parents taking their children to the west of Kenya for the new school term next week were also inconvenienced by the ban.
EXTRA COST
A nervous passenger who spoke to the Nation said he was not sure whether the journey to Nakuru would take off after all.
“It’s already 4pm and the bus is not full yet. I had planned to travel to Nakuru and back to Nairobi on Sunday night. I will have to incur an extra cost for accommodation, which I had not planned for,” he said.
“Why is NTSA punishing everyone? Trucks are to blame for most of the accidents that happen along that stretch,” complained Noah Ngetich, a driver with Greenline Bus Services.
“The government should construct a dual carriage road along the highway or construct a separate road for the trucks to minimise these accidents,” he said, adding that banning all night travel would result in serious economic consequences.
Food vendors at the bus station lamented that the night travel ban would impact heavily on their profits.
SELL FOOD
“We sell food to daytime travellers and those that travel at night. Ordinarily we close at 11pm, but now we will have to close early,” said a vendor who only identified herself as Julia.
A miraa vendor at the bus station told the Nation that his main clients are bus drivers and that after the ban, his business now hangs in the balance.
Long-distance public service vehicle operators in Western Kenya have criticized NTSA’s directive terming it punitive.
They questioned the competence of NTSA officers, saying the body was to blame for the hundreds of lives that have been lost through road carnage during the festive season.
The operators said they were thinking of moving to court to challenge the directive.
ROAD CARNAGE
In Kakamega, Cleophas Shimanyula who runs a fleet of vehicles said the decision by NTSA to suspend the night operations by public transport vehicles was not a solution to the road carnage witnessed in the last one month.
He said NTSA has failed in its work.
“The new directive will only hurt businesses. Operators have loans to pay. The move will inconvenience travellers,” Mr Shimanyula said.
He went on: “Nasty accidents have occurred during the day and the government needs to come up with a proper strategy to address road carnage. Otherwise operators could move to court to challenge the decision.”
Reports by James Kahongeh, Victor Otieno and Benson Amadala
