Business, Investment & infrastructure
Matatu sector records Sh700 M loss in post election violence fears
By Glenah Nyamwaya
The Matatu Welfare Association( MWA) has decried losses faced by the public transport sector following tension and uncertainty that ensued after the recently conducted general elections.
Dickson Mbugua, the chairman of the association said the industry had lost over Sh700 million in the five days following the polls.
“ The losses were experienced as a result of tension following the polls in which most Kenyans kept to their homes in fear of eruption of violence,” Mbugua said.
The tension further heightened after the National Super Alliance( NASA) leaders disputed the presidential results citing rigging in favour of incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Public Service Vehicle( PSV) owners withdrew the vehicles from the roads for fear of violence.
“ We have received reports of one PSV vehicle being burnt during the violence that broke out in Kisumu County,” Mbugua noted.
Yolanda Andanje, a resident in Nairobi, complained of how she had to endure morning chill on voting day when walking from Nairobi’ s Tassia Estate to Buruburu to catch a matatu to Moi Avenue Primary School in the CBD to cast her vote.
“ I was shocked when I got to the bus stop at 5am and found many others waiting for transport but there was no matatu in sight. We then decided to trek as a group towards Donholm expecting to find one along the way,” she said.
“ It was however until Buruburu that we met the first matatu and there was a huge scramble that ensued for space to board,” she added.
The same scenario was witnessedin other parts of the city, with roads remaining clear of traffic.
A spot check around notoriously congested roads and highways showed that the trend was the same across the city and beyond after the polls.
Mombasa road, Thika road, Jogoo road, Langata road, Ngong road and Waiyaki way were all clear from the polling day until the following Monday, when Kenyans started trickling back to work.
The MWA called out to Kenyans in the formal and informal sectors as well as service providers to take courage and report back to work saying keeping away was not a solution to the impasse.
The association was wary that should the condition remain as it were, they would risk incurring a loss of up to Ksh1billion.
In the run-up to the polls, many Kenyans had travelled to their rural homes to cast their vote. Long distance transport service providers hiked bus fare as the demand for the service exceeded supply.
However, it was interesting to observe that the transport crew only allowed passengers with voter’ s cards indicating they were not registered to vote within the city, to travel upcountry. This was in a bid to urge all voters to take up their civic duty and choose leaders.
However, coming back to the city from upcountry proved another headache for Kenyans.
“ I went to vote in my hometown of Machakos and was surprised when I couldn’ t get means to come back to Nairobi, despite my employer needing me to report to work,” said David Mulwa, a resident of Embakasi.
Mulwa expressed surprise as Machakos had never been flagged as a probable hot spot during the polls period but even then, the public transport sector operators had shied away from business.
Before the polls, chairman Mbugua had noted that 70 per cent of PSVs were acquired using loans and putting them out of business wouldresult to huge losses.
He noted that the matatu sector would suffer greatly in case of violence, recapping the scenario of the 2007 / 2008 post polls chaos that saw numerous PSVs burnt as youth took to the streets to oppose the results.
A report titled The Kenya 2008-2009 Post-Election Conflict by the World Mediation Organization indicates that the transport sector was greatly hampered since those participating in the violence put blockades on the roads and burnt any cars along the roads.
“ Transportation of food and people suffered a halt during the violence which translated to shortage of food in the shops and thus many people were facing hunger,” the report further noted.
The Kenyan political crisis at that time exposed the East African region’ s over reliance on Kenya’ s transport infrastructure, especially the port ofMombasa.
“ The numerous blocked roads and vandalized rail lines in Kenya affected significantly the economy of the region. Fuel prices rose throughout East Africa,” indicated the report.
18 September 2017