Matatu operators want food vendors out of park

Migori Matatu operators want vendors to leave the Bus Park on May 26, 2019. [Caleb Kingwara, Standard]

Matatu operators in Migori town have threatened to withhold revenue to the county government until food vendors are removed from the bus park.

Migori Matatu Operators Union Chairman George Rarieda said the vendors hampered their work.

Tension between public transport operators and vendors at the main stage has been simmering over limited space and frequent accidents.

A woman is currently nursing injuries at Migori Level Four Hospital after she was involved in an accident at the bus park.

Rarieda said they had raised complaints with the official in charge of revenue collection at the bus park in vain.

“Any time an accident occurs at the stage, the drivers are blamed," said Tobias Origi, the chairperson of Mihuru Matatu Sacco.

On February 5, this year, the county government demolished all illegal structures along the busy Isebania-Migori highway to give way to planning of Migori town.

The incident saw vendors displaced, with some resorting to selling their wares at the bus park.