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Matatu cartels won’t stop city buses plan, official


Cartels in the matatu sector are bribing some county assembly members to sabotage the planned introduction of more than 200 county buses, the executive member in charge of Transport has claimed.

Mr Evans Ondieki said the cartels had been fundraising all week and met some MCAs in a city hotel on Tuesday morning where he alleged that money changed hands.

“We are moving with speed to ensure that this programme commences immediately. We know the cartels are busy bribing some of our officers here to sabotage that process,” he said.

A defiant Ondieki said that he would rather retire if his presence at City Hall would not bring about change.

Days numbered

“This is a programme that must go on. It was started by the Governor (Evans Kidero) because we believe it is the way to go. So these cartels who have been meeting all week, fundraising, they must know that their days are numbered. We are not going to give in to blackmail and corruption,” he said.

The county will introduce mass bus transit system to ease the congestion in the CBD and inject professionalism in the sector. The plan is to have the buses operational in the next three to four months.

The plan, which has received the backing of the County Assembly, will see on the streets buses with a seating capacity of not less than 62. The buses will also be allowed to carry as many as 25 standing passengers.

The plan means that low capacity PSVs will be progressively barred from entering the CBD where they’ve been blamed for causing congestion.

They will be expected to drop and pick passengers in the city centre’s periphery.

He blamed the cartels for the rise in crime in the city noting that the plan aims restore sanity in the chaotic matatu sector.