‘Nissans’ are terrible for our economy, and even worse for safety on our roads
What you need to know:
- The 14-seater is at the heart of the bandit matatu culture.
- Vans are not a mass transit tool.
President Uhuru Kenyatta was dead wrong in reversing a 10-year policy to phase out the 14-seater matatu, popularly (and perhaps unfairly) known as “Nissan”.
Mr Kenyatta announced on Wednesday that the 14-seater will not be phased out, after all.
Since 2004, there has been a push in government to get rid of the vehicle for some sound economic, environmental, and safety reasons.
Ten years ago, Kenya had the most unsafe roads in Africa, with road fatalities well ahead of South Africa, another country wedded to vans.
By last year, road fatalities in Kenya were still atrocious, above the global average, but below the African average, with South Africa and Nigeria having the most deaths.
The reason for this improvement is the work that had been done, including removing certain vehicle types that are fast on the road but not built for safety: the safety belts are jua kali, the seats are welded onto the floor on Kirinyaga Road, the passenger cage is structurally weak, and they have no safety features such as airbags, anti-lock brakes, or stability systems.
If you have an accident in an armour-plated, top-of-the-range Toyota Land Cruiser V8 and your safety belt is on, even if the vehicle rolls at speed, you have a very good chance of not only surviving, but also avoiding serious injury.
If you have an accident in an overloaded van, driven at 140kph, it will take a miracle to walk out of it. If you are pulled out of the rubble, chances are that you will be a cabbage.
NOT A MASS TRANSIT TOOL
From public statements, Mr Kenyatta has been of the view that matatus contribute to economic growth and provide employment to the youth and that we should not “be in a hurry” to get rid of them.
In 2012, only 78 new 14-seaters were registered, down from 451 in 2011 and 3,600 in 2010.
It looked as though, with the help of matatu saccos, the country was moving to safer, bigger vehicles. As soon as Mr Kenyatta was elected, the vans were back with new registrations rising 201 per cent in 2013.
Vans are not a mass transit tool. They are too small. They pollute and congest, costing billions of shillings in lost man-hours and they gut the health-care system by clogging it with accident victims.
Jubilee presents itself as the party of the youth. Road accidents, many of them caused by unsafe vehicles, kill the youth.
Sixty-two per cent of road deaths in Africa are from the 15-44 age group. The 30-44 age group accounts for 35 per cent of road fatalities.
It is a tragedy that Africa, which has only two per cent of the world’s vehicles (and 12 per cent of its population), accounts for 16 per cent of the global road fatalities.
(For comparison, Europe with 13 per cent of the world’s population and 26 per cent of its vehicles, accounts for only 8 per cent of the road fatalities).
Europe has very stringent safety regulations, both for drivers and vehicle manufacturers.
BANDIT MATATU CULTURE
The 14-seater is at the heart of the bandit matatu culture. And in that culture, nobody really makes money: not the owner, nor the driver or the tout.
A bigger bus will employ more and provide them with better, more stable jobs.
After Mwalimu Nyerere in Tanzania, there came the “ruhsa” government of Ali Hassan Mwinyi, where the policy was “everything goes”.
People got the president’s permission to do pretty much anything. By the time Ben Mkapa was elected, folk were not even paying taxes.
In this day and age, policy cannot be a matter of predilections and on-the-hoof, from-the-gut responses; it has to be thoroughly considered.
*****
The use of violence to remove Orange party Executive Director Magerer Lang’at on charges of disloyalty marks a new low in the slide of ODM down the slope of thuggery.
It is not lost on Kenyans that the officials of that party are in office basically by force: delegates were not given a chance to pick leaders of their choice.
Again, the charge was that the youthful guys who were poised to take leadership were, you got it, disloyal.
This is politically cute, but it speaks very badly for a party whose democratic instincts Kenyans thought were inbred.
Only ODM — protected by the guilt Kenyans feel over the 2007 rigging rigmarole, the torture of its leaders in detention, and a certain unquestioning loyalty from the base — can get away with unleashing violence on its own elections and executive director.
