The dangerous cartel guided by jungle laws operating Matatus

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How can we change the lenses through which we understand our transport environment?

Just recently, the Interior ministry planned a major crackdown on rogue matatus to keep them off the roads — permanently — and, with them, the criminal gangs that prey on the sector together with the crooked police officers and politicians linked to the gangs. However, months later, at the centre of the faded crackdown is how to regain control of the public transport sector by the cartels and secure the multi-billion-shilling industry.

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Along the Kiambu road are rogue PSV operators who have become notorious for overlapping and bullying motorist in a bid to evade the traffic and get to their destination despite the risk they put motorist in.

The aftermath of the ignorance is injured passengers like the recently witnessed case along Kiambu road where a Kiambu-bound matatu lost control and plunged into a valley in Karura Forest near DCI headquarters inflicting injuries on passengers.

Reports indicate the 14-seater matatu was in a group of vehicles that were overlapping when it veered off the road.

A Kiambu- bound Marafiki Sacco matatu loses control and plunges into a valley in Karura Forest near DCI headquarters. Several people feared dead. It is reported that the Matatu was overlapping— JOE MUHAHAMI (@Muhahami) April 29, 2019

With rising insecurity, compounded by the lawlessness of mushrooming boda bodas, the government was duty-bound to step in. And when it did, it was met with the expected resistance, protests and boycotts.

Yet neither side is clean.

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Schemes by operators to bend the stiff conditions are always met with extortion by law enforcers in an uncanny relationship that has fostered corruption and left death in its wake.

15:40 Quite ironical that you would find these words on a matatu when they are popularly known for violations of the traffic law. Seen on Thika road. pic.twitter.com/ClYjOjIKtz via @CarolTunnen— Ma3Route (@Ma3Route) April 27, 2019

Matatu operators have raised concerns over what they consider to be extreme measures. Why, for instance, should vehicle owners or the sacco be culpable for offences committed by a driver or conductor?

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