TOM MALITI: Build bus stops on city roads to enforce the law
Believe it or not, the authorities have been kind to us.
A strict interpretation of the Traffic Act would see us, as matatu passengers, being regularly fined thousands of shillings for breaking the law.
We regularly get onto or alight from matatus at non-designated points in violation of the law. This is through no fault of our own. Some of the city’s main roads such as Ngong, Lang’ata, and Waiyaki Way have bus stops. But some do not.
How many bus stops are on Uhuru Highway? Can you think of any bus stops on Mombasa Road? Yet consider how many people are picked up and dropped there.
The situation is worse when you think of residential areas. How many bus stops can you identify in any residential area?
The roads matatus ply through places like Donholm, South C, Ngumo, Otiende or Highridge, have few, if any.
Matatus simply pick and drop passengers on the road.
The Traffic Act was amended last year to make it more modern. Our infrastructure is, however, stuck in the time before the age of public transport systems.
This was amplified last year when the drivers and conductors who work on routes 15 and 34 held a half day strike.
They protested our men and women in blue regularly arresting them for picking and dropping passengers at non-designated points along Kitengela Road.
Start building
Kitengela Road does not have a single bus stop yet it is the only road that passes estates such as Masai Court, Rubia, Uhuru Gardens and Ngei Phase II.
The authorities should start building bus stops in residential areas. For the time it will take them to do so, no one should be arrested for picking and dropping passengers from non-designated points in residential areas.
tom. maliti@live.com