Kenya Today

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Here Is The Rant Over CS Matiangi’s Move To Streamline Public Transport/ Matatus

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By Silas N

All these pain because of a decision of a few guys at the top,” said a man in the train this morning, as commuters at the Donholm roundabout scrambled for train that lately has been picking Donholm residents in a non-designated and dangerous point, it is a matter of time, before a disaster happens.

I get to town, it is chaos at Kencom. So many people stranded. At Ambassadeur, it is the same story.

Ubers, Taxifies and Little Cabs are making a killing from the misery of the poor. If you pay Sh 30 to Community, if you ail a cab together the least you can pay is Sh 100. I have been poor and vulnerable, I know what a fare hike means. I have been stranded in town because of Sh 20.

Kenya is a funny a country. We have folks who went to Rural schools, attended public secondary schools and public universities. They are well placed to know the pain of the common mwananchi and how fatally flawed our country is.

Transport is supposed to be a government function at the least affordable cost. Because it is to get workers, from point A to B, and help save time.

But these men born in the 1960s who run this country, common sense is not their strength. That is why they have to go back to “Michuki Rules” which never worked (did to a certain extent) in the first place because some say, all they wanted to do then was sell seatbelts.

This country, we don’t make laws that are humane. We just make laws that convenient to the rich. I have friends who drive cars and I know their disdain towards matatu drivers. The better the car they drive, the more matatus are an inconvenience to them.

That is why, those up the government are afraid of using their brains.

If NIS, did their job, they will know Monday 12th, is the worst time to implement the draconian and nonsensical rules. Many students were these morning inconvenienced and were late the for their national exam that we have been made to think is the most important thing in a child’s life.

As Matiang’i said, we need some order on our roads.
But incompetent people have a way of exaggerating stuff. For instance, I don’t think that Graffiti is bad on matatus, granted the more pimped up the matatu is, the likelier that it is driven badly. And Rongai has taught what matatu recklessness can do.

But I still think, there ought to be a humane way of handling the matatu menace. An orderly way.

What the government has started, it cannot sustain. Because they don’t have enough work force, and cops are corrupt as hell. And matatu owners control such a vital organ of any civilization, they can paralyse government operations.

Bring sanity, but think about the poor and the choices they have. And you will make rules that make sense.

For now, you can be sure the government is about to collect billions in fines to fund the lifestyles of our corrupt elite.

Human beings overrate their intelligence. We are just animals sipping latte.

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