Move away from crackdown to enforcing rules; it’s smart, cheap

Some of the PSV Matatus found flouting traffic rules yesterday packed at Buruburu Police Station. [Beverlyne Musili, Standard]

Where were Cabinet Secretary for Interior Fred Matiang'i and his Transport counterpart James Macharia when the late John Michuki fiercely enforced road safety rules which came to be fondly named after him?

Have these rules been hidden from the current Government for the last five years, with the two senior Government officials "accidentally" finding them in the last one week?

These hard questions require answers from the Government, not for the sake of the brazen matatu operators that have refused to comply with the so-called Michuki rules, but for the sake of innocent commuters for whom moving around the city became a nightmare as the Government laid the ground (yet again) for a major crackdown on rogue matatus beginning next Monday.

Once in a while, the NTSA and Traffic Police swing into action to enforce the Highway Code. Matatu drivers are frogmarched into a police van while their vehicles are impounded. That lasts usually for a week followed by a relapse into the default state of anomie.

And because of that, this latest round is bound to fail. Such efforts work well where there is a cheaper, reliable and efficient alternative.

Phasing out matatus will take time and requires much patience. Kenyans would have expected the Government to, for example, increase the number of trips by commuter trains into Nairobi or accelerated plans for the city's Rapid Bus Transit. This would not only help commuters to find an alternative transport as the Government infuses discipline into the matatu sub-sector, it would also have signalled a bold intention to rid the country of the pernicious matatu sub-culture where the end justifies the means. Sadly, those plans exist just on paper.

Worst of all, the plan to reintroduce the rules has been so poorly executed that it is not clear who between commuters and PSVs the authorities seek to punish. The few PSVs that have met the required standards are having a field day. Commuters along Thika Highway paid up to Sh150 for a trip that would ideally cost Sh30.

This newspaper has argued that because of the low margins and big investment involved, international best practice is that public transport is government-run. In Kenya and most parts of the developing world, public transport is privately run. That explains why change in government policy, like say safety or air pollution, often breeds fierce resistance.

The matatu owners resisted the safety belts and the rule on the maximum passengers per vehicle. They only caved in when they realised Mr Michuki would not relent.

For example, a lot of them reckon that the latest requirement (like the Michuki rules) which roots for use of materials such as fibre glass and plastics rather than heavy metals on seat handles to minimize injury and even death on impact, will push them out of the road.

For 15 years, Michuki’s guidebook on road safety has existed, not as some ad hoc roadside declaration, but as part of the laws.

The NTSA Act Cap 403 and Legal Notice 161 of 2003 says all Public Service Vehicles (PSVs) must be fitted with speed limiters or governors, safety belts (seat belts) and yellow continuous line.

But Dr Matiang'i and Mr Macharia seem to have read about them only last week. “Effective Monday November 12, 2018, any PSV vehicle, drivers, Saccos/transport companies, passengers and other relevant parties that fail to comply with the provisions of the NTSA Act and the Traffic Act will be firmly dealt with in accordance with the law,” said a joint statement by the ministries of Transport and Interior.

It is not lost on most Kenyans that it is the same Government that rolled back some of the Michuki rules, including the requirement to draw a yellow continuous line on all PSVs and have only one colour. In the heat of his reelection campaigns, President Uhuru Kenyatta argued that the graffiti adorned on matatu in the city created jobs for jobless youth. He ordered the police to stop harassing the crews of the graffiti-filled buses.

This Government needs to understand that you cannot have your cake and eat it. It is either you want discipline on the road or freedom to business as you deem fit. Before this latest crackdown, operators had refused to budge arguing that without proper education on how the rules would be effected, nothing would be achieved.

We do not agree with the anything-goes position taken by matatu operators, but we also do not think the Government has prepared everyone for this process. As a result, it is bound to fail, yet again.