With Kenyans on a rush to travel upcountry and preferred holiday destinations, Public Service Vehicles (PSVs) have designed ingenious tricks to maximize on profits.
Matatus and buses have modified their vehicles to increase their capacity as the Ministry of Health restricted them to carrying only 50 percent of their capacity to curb the possible spread of Covid-19.
To cash in on the rush, PSVs have replaced seats in their vehicles and installed smaller ones to enable them carry more passengers and to appear to comply with social distancing measures.
Other transport operators have transformed private vans into PSVs, a move that allows them to evade the Covid-19 PSV rules and guidelines that were imposed on them by the government.
The 10 p.m to 4 a.m dusk till dawn curfew is not being adhered to by some of the transport operators with night travel making a comeback against government directives.
Only major cities and towns enforce the dusk till dawn curfew, with other highways having PSVs operating at night.
The transport operators claim that as long as they are able to leave Nairobi before 10 p.m they can buy their way into their destinations across the country despite police checks along the way.
The curfew rules state that anyone found on the road between 10 p.m and 4 a.m and is not part of the essential services are supposed to be arrested.
Various bus termini across the country have witnessed a large number of people who are travelling to various destinations, with some stranded due to overbookings.
The high demand for travel has seen the Standard Guage Railway (SGR) from Nairobi to Mombasa fully booked till Sunday, December 27 as Kenyans scramble to get to the coastal city.
PSVs are however lamenting of double standards with airlines and the SGR operating at full capacity without social distancing rules.
The mass travel to upcountry has been tipped by experts to cause a spike in Covid-19 cases especially in rural areas.
