Michael Mundia Kamau
P.O. Box 58972
00200 City Square
Nairobi
Kenya

15th February 2004

GOVERNOR MICHUKI

The transport crisis in Kenya enters it’s third week
characterised by an unrelenting transport minister and
government, a transport sector that continues to play
cat and mouse games with the government and public in
general, and a populace that is having to bear the
agonising burden of the prior two.

The Minister for Transport and Communication, Hon.
John Njoroge Michuki, must be commended for taking
deliberate steps to bring back sanity on Kenyan roads.
I myself was almost the victim of a near fatal road
accident in 1996. The partiality with which the
problem is being addressed will however drastically
compromise it’s success rate. No effort for instance,
has been made by the transport ministry to release a
comprehensive timetable on how long at worst the
public is expected to bear with the psychological,
physical and financial burden. It is clearly apparent
that no contingency measures were and have been put in
place, another indictment to Hon. Michuki’s policy.

For two weeks now, Kenyans have desperately been
forced to scramble for any kind of transport
available. Talk of the government succeeding is just
that. There have been appalling scenes of men, women
and children scrambling for trains, trucks, pickups,
saloon vehicles out to make a killing, and all other
kinds of vehicles willing to cash in. All these except
the train, are charging premium fares, two, three or
four times more than the usual. Safety and health
standards have totally been disregarded over the past
two weeks and will continue to be. Transport vehicles
are also openly flouting the newly instituted
guidelines in the wee hours of the morning and late
hours of the night, by carrying excess passengers.

There is then also a big portion of the population
living in the densely populated areas of Kayole,
Dandora, Kawangware, Kibera and Kariobangi, who have
been forced to walk to and from work, because standing
passengers paying budget fares are no longer
accomodated in public service vehicles. This was a
danger yes, but the government is not providing short
and long term alternatives to an impoverished populace
experiencing heavy budgetary constraints. Many
residing in Nairobi are being forced to wake up at
three or four o’clock in the morning and retire on
average at about ten or eleven o’clock at night,
without the benefits that North Americans reap from
this. If anything, the situation has made it worse for
commuters and business in general. It has also exposed
the inadequacy of the road network in the capital
city. It is extremely agonising to be caught in
traffic jam at 5.30 a.m. in the morning or 11.00 p.m.
at night, and it is clear that this was also not
factored in.

The transport problem in Kenya is much more extensive
and complex and the government must be called upon to
approach the matter much more comprehensively. It is
totally insufficient to target the transport sector
alone. Literally all drivers and vehicles on Kenyan
roads are the result of a heavily compromised system.
In the days that I attended driving school for
instance, trainees underwent the same coaching i.e. 15
one hour classes of theory and 15 one hour classes of
practicals, but there were two categories of payment.
One payment covered the driving lessons and cost of
the driving test by the traffic police. Our trainers
however made it clear that this option provided no
guarantee of passing the driving test and obtaining a
driving licence. There was then the other more costly,
but certainly more attractive payment alternative
referred to then as “licence guarantee”. Our Trainers
assured us that those opting for “licence guarantee”
were sure of passing the driving test, and sure of
obtaining a driving licence. Literally all of us,
myself included, opted for “licence guarantee”. That
was the trend in those days and after, and illustrates
the origin of many Kenyan drivers, because this is the
trend that obtained in literally all driving schools.
Those who did not attend driving school obtained their
licences in equally dubious ways. For good measure if
one talks to people who took their driving lessons
much earlier on in the 1960s, a similar story emerges.
No one in Kenya is clean, and as Professor Chinua
Achebe puts it, we assert not to have any links with
the smelly garbage dump yet we feast on maggots
procreated in that very same smelly garbage dump.

In addition, most of the second hand motor vehicles in
Kenya today have been imported over the last ten
years, courtesy of liberalisation. Customs officials,
businessmen and several individuals across the
country, have reaped huge benefits from this lucrative
albeit dubious trade. Import duty and import
guidelines were openly flouted for the majority of
current car owners, who continue to point a finger at
the transport sector. Professor Achebe certainly has a
place in Kenya. Some of the sources of these cheap
second hand vehicles were and continue to be, the
Middle East, the Far East, and South Africa. Several
agonising and unheeded cries of distress were made by
dealers in brand new vehicles over the last ten years,
who found it difficult to compete in such a skewed
market. The government then and now, did not offer
beneficial rebates and their overheads continued to
soar. The few that did not close shop, had good
political connections. Then there is the other
fraction of motor vehicles on our roads today that
have been acquired through the nefarious and murderous
vice of car robberies.

It is plain to see that the transport problem in Kenya
is much more complex than meets the eye. Phase one is
however being approached with little sympathy, care
and sensitivity from the authorities. A word of
encouragement to the suffering public from the
transport minister, the president of Kenya and members
of parliament is lacking, something that would have
helped build solidarity. The staunchest supporters of
the present day government are the ones suffering the
most from the ongoing transport crisis. There is
something unsettling and ominous about the
government’s silence though. It is as if it is afraid
to tell the public that much sterner measures are in
store for this country in 2004 and beyond.



Michael Mundia Kamau