Matatu clampdown causes chaos
Provided by [URL=http://www.int.iol.co.za]IOL[/URL] - By Jack Kimball
Nairobi - Thousands of Kenyans mobbed private minibuses, scrambling to board the loudly painted vehicles on Friday after a government push to enforce safety rules left many without transport.
Commuters were forced to wait for hours after police removed nearly 500 minibuses, known as matatus, from Nairobi's congested streets this week.
"We cannot reach work on time. I got to my job 30 minutes late today," waiter Kennedy Odhiambo Okoth, 26, said.
A spate of car crashes in recent months, including one involving former President Daniel arap Moi, has thrown the spotlight on a 2003 order to fit seatbelts and speed-limit devices on matatus to reduce road accidents.
In the years since the order, enforcement has been haphazard with many accusing the police of complicity through corruption.
"It's a problem of corruption. (President Mwai) Kibaki doesn't know how to take charge," Aromba Mwando, a security guard, said after waiting two hours for a minibus.
"Many bosses are very angry with their workers. It's a big problem. It's good for matatus to reform, but it's bad for us."
Matatus are stuffed to capacity at rush hours, often emit blaring music and are widely blamed for Kenya's high rate of traffic fatalities because of their erratic driving and brutal competition for passengers.
Kibaki's government has said it is determined to bring order to the chaos in public transport and reduce road accidents.
"Traffic rules are being flouted and as a result we have seen accidents take place. Most of these are because of matatus," said Joseph Manyala, spokesman for the Ministry of Transport.
"We will continue this crackdown until we are satisfied that there is sanity on the roads," he said, adding that matatus were not being singled out specifically.
But matatu owners accused Kibaki's government - which has been rocked by corruption scandals - of trying to muscle them out of the transport business.
"The government is trying to create room for tycoons to invest in this industry, but that will kill the poor wananchi (citizen)," said Albert Karakacha, national co-ordinator of the Matatu Owners Association.
Karakacha said the association represents almost 49 000 matatus, which employ up to a half a million people across the east African country.
- Additional reporting by Tia Goldenberg in Nairobi
