Matatu owners allow gov't more time to address issues affecting transport sector

The anticipated transport sector strike did not take place after the Matatu Owners Association pulled out.

Led by their president Albert Karagacha, Matatu Owners say that after a meeting with the Ministry of Transport, they have resolved to give the government more time to address issues ailing the sector.

However, the Matatu Workers Association and the Motorists Association of Kenya, are accusing the Matatu Owners Association of jumping into bed with the government, calling them a cartel that has derailed reforms in the transport sector.

From a glance, the public transport in the city remains undisturbed. What you do not see are the bitter wrangles taking place in the boardrooms of the different stakeholders. The Kenya Roads Board recently increased the road maintenance levy by Ksh.7.

The move has sharply divided the sector. The Matatu Owners Association appears unperturbed by the increase, after a meeting with the Ministry of Transport. O Thursday, they released a statement calling off the protests, and on Friday, they threw their weight behind the government.

“We are businessmen and we are going to work very closely with the government because we must support the government,” said Karagacha.

The Motorists Association of Kenya however says that the officials of the Matatu Owners Association were equally agitated at the increase of the Road Maintenance levy, but seem to have changed their minds, barely a week in.

“We call them cartels because they have remained there, you can see they are old faces who have remained within the sector and they don’t want anybody else, in fact even the younger generation to come and take that. They are in their fourth plus decade in that sector holding a stranglehold. So they are easily compromised and they are the ones who sell our causes,” Motorists Association of Kenya Chairperson Peter Murima stated.

Drivers and Conductors represented by the Matatu Workers Union and the Long Distance Drivers and Conductors Association, say the owners of the vehicles they work in, have remained unbothered and instead pushed the burden to them.

“Once mafuta imepanda, price za gari hazipandi, nakama zinapanda, zinapanda kidogo sana. Of which mwenye gari pia yeye anataka pesa yake ile ile target yenye anafaa kuwa nayo, so unapata mwenye gari akishapata pesa yake na gari pia imekula mafuta yake, mwenye anabaki juu ya mataa ni driver,” a long distance driver Sammy Ngura noted.

Matatu Workers Union Secretary General, Maurice Oduor added, “Wafanyikazi hawalipwi mshahara mwisho wa mwezi, mfanyikazi anategemea ile pesa anapata kile ambacho wanapata kila siku, na wakati mwingine unapata fuel inapo enda juu hao pesa zao wanapatalakini wafanyi kazi inabidi wastruggle wapiti mambo mengi.”