Public Service Vehicle operators within Nairobi County and Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja have announced that uniformed school going children will be offered free transport.
The Governor and the PSV operators team made the announcement after hours long deliberations on how to restore sanity and order in the city by the matatu sector.
Governor Sakaja who made the request noted that times are hard as some school going children don’t even have fares to school and from, hence the need to allow them to be ferried free of charge.
The operators represented by all Saccos agreed to the Governor’s request in unison.
“Children in Nairobi and donning school uniform from now on will not pay fare and the matatu carrying them shouldn’t be penalized for excess because those are short distances,” Governor Sakaja stated.
During the meeting the Governor announced that he has revoked the impounding of Public Service Vehicles (PSV) and motorcycles in the city, in a move aimed at allowing the sector to self regulate.
The Governor said that impounding the vehicles has been of no consequence since even impounding charges never reach the county revenue accounts.
Impounding charges for PSVs in the city range from Sh10,000 while breakdown charges are Sh7,500.
He instead invited the PSV sector to work with his administration in enhancing compliance, so as to restore sanity in the city.The Governor said that currently there are 450 registered Saccos in the city and about 21,000 vehicles.
He however noted that only half of those vehicles are compliant, hence lead to lose of revenue to the county.
The Governor asked those who are yet to comply to do so before they are kicked out of the CBD.
“Between 10,000 to 11,000 vehicles are non-compliant. This is a new administration and we must follow the law,” he said.
Capital News
