How now? Sunbird? Ni Vile umelipa. Otherwise ungeenda hapo corner ya mash na dreamline. And get a ka "personal". Last week there were about 3 cars lookin for passengers... Hakuna ujanja na basi. Travel daytime.

C&P


I arrived in Nairobi about an hour ago, after a long drive from Kisii, via Trans Mara. The road was devoid of buses and other public service vehicles, presumably as a result of the ban on their night travel. 

Whilst the lightness of the traffic made for an easier drive (particularly as I was driving myself), I thought about the PSV night travel ban. I have to say I am not persuaded regarding the wisdom of the ban.

Firstly, for a country that continues to express commitment to achieving a so called 24 hour economy, the ban seems to me to militate against that goal! Secondly many non PSV vehicles continue to be involved in accidents at night. Whats the basis of what appears to be a discriminative ban? Charles Nyachae can drive his private vehicle from Kisii to Nairobi at night, but Moraa who does not have a private vehicle, cannot travel by bus the same route at the same time!!!

Thirdly and most importantly, is this otherwise (at least to my mind), extreme measure because everything else has failed? Is it an admission that we are a society which will never be able to follow rules and develop an acceptable road culture as is the case in many other countries? That we are completely incapable of enforcing existing laws and letting traffic offenders experience the consequences of their actions.? By the way, this morning I personally witnessed a motor cyclist ride past two traffic police officers between Bobaracho and Kisii town. He rode past them with, not one, not two, but three passengers, meaning that the motorcycle had four people on it! Yet if there is a category of road users that has proved to be the greatest threat to life and limb, it is these motorcycles!

There is definitely a case for urgently addressing the issue of accidents on our roads. But is the banning of night travel the solution? I don't think so!

Us

Firstly, there's no ban as such but there are conditions to be fulfilled for an operator to be allowed to operate at night or 24hrs.

You do however raise valid points. Anyone who had ever operated or owned a PSV in Kenya will probably tell you one thing: that the (traffic) laws as currently enforced only serve to punish those who comply while letting scot-free the law breakers. How? Take an example of the speed limits. If I have mine with a functional speed governor at 80, others without will make more trips than me and eventually passengers label mine a 'tortoise' and no one will wanna board it. What to do?

In short, ours is more of an enforcement problem rather than a lack of proper laws. Take the two examples of horrific accidents that happened last year: Ntulele and Mwingi. In the former case, was there not a single cop who saw that the bus was in defiance of its TLB-allocated route? Na ile ya Mwingi in which the bus was overloaded with even some standing passengers, yaani kwa hiyo barabara yoote kutoka Nairobi, past Thika and all the way to Matuu, hakuna askari hata mmoja angeinua mkono, asimamishe hilo basi, aulize swali moja tu: mbona una abiria wengi kupita kiasi?

Of course, we as passengers also cannot abdicate our responsibilities. Who forces us to board overloaded vehicles? Truth is, we mostly make a decision to board filled vehicles ostensibly because we're running late, etc. but if we all said no, hakuna makanga atakuja na nyahunyo kutuchapa eti kwa sababu tumekataa kuingia garini ilhali limejaa tayari.

GoK vs Bus firms, who shall blink first? Customers have dwindled.

Fact: No major bus accident since the "ban", so gava won't relent.

Fact: Numbers of travellors appear to have halved.......=reduced profits......so bus firms will have to comply to remain profitable.

Eng Kamau wins in advance!

Less dead people on the roads, that was the main objective of the regulations in the first place.