Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has seemingly made a U-turn on his directive to remove matatus from the city's Central Business District (CBD), shelving the plan—for now.
Sakaja, who had pledged in his gubernatorial manifesto to decongest the city by relocating matatus from its core, now appears to be retreating from that commitment.
“I would like to clarify that there are no plans, first and foremost, to decongest the city using that approach (removing matatus from the CBD). The county government’s, and the governor’s, dream and vision is not to remove any matatus from the CBD,” stated Machel Waikenda, Chief Mobility Officer in the Nairobi County Government.
The decision to put the plan on hold comes amid uproar from both matatu operators and commuters over the challenges posed by Sakaja’s campaign pledge to ease congestion in the city.
Notably, Sakaja’s reversal of his directive comes just six days after reports emerged of plans to bar matatus from the CBD. This followed a closed-door meeting involving representatives of matatu SACCOs, police, and county officials.
One of the measures Sakaja had proposed to reduce matatu congestion in the CBD was increasing the number of matatu SACCOs. However, this plan has now been dropped following widespread opposition from operators.
Sakaja began his push to remove matatus from the CBD immediately after assuming office, enforcing a directive that barred matatu SACCOs operating on Western, Rift Valley, and Nyanza routes from accessing the city centre. Instead, he directed them to pick up and drop off passengers at the Green Park bus terminus.
However, like his predecessors, Sakaja faced legal challenges, as a court order blocked the enforcement of his directive.
Earlier efforts by Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) Chairman, General Mohammed Badi, to relocate matatus from the CBD to ease traffic congestion also failed to materialise. NMS had planned to use the Green Park bus terminus to accommodate Public Service Vehicles (PSVs) currently operating from the Nairobi Railway Station stage, including those serving Ngong, Kibera, Rongai, and Dagoretti.
At the same time, matatu operators have called on Sakaja to improve the efficiency of road construction projects in the county. They urged the governor to schedule road maintenance works outside peak hours to prevent traffic gridlocks.
“In the previous government under Uhuru Kenyatta, we had NMS governing Nairobi. They used to carry out tarmacking and cleaning at night, so there was no traffic congestion,” noted a matatu operator.
