Will it work? Trouble is looming between matatu owners and the Nairobi City county government over new directive barring Public Service Vehicles (PSVs) from operating within the Central Business District(CBD).
In a move Governor Mike Sonko says is aimed at decongesting the city centre and rid it of annoying matatu culture, City Hall has created 11 new matatu termini outside the CBD and scraped the old pick up points and stages.
The new changes which also revoke all previous gazette notices allocating pick up and dropping points will take effect on Monday, December 3. According to a gazette notice dated Thursday, November 29, all routes accessing the CBD from Waiyaki, Uhuru Highway, Limuru and Kipande roads will use Fig Tree Market terminus as well as PSVs plying Thika road, Kiambu and Ruiru roads.
At the same time, passengers accessing town via urban routes from Mombasa and Lang’ata roads will be picked and dropped at Hakati road whereas vehicles from Jogoo or Lusaka road resort to Muthurwa terminus.
The directive is expected to cause a massive uproar among the stakeholders especially users of PSVs who will now have to walk all the way to the outskirts of the CBD to access public transport. Earlier attempts have been met with court injunction orders from the key industry players.