In
Nairobi, public transport is the bane of every modern Kenyan. Before
Nairobi became the preferred port of call for every man, woman, child
and cow from the four corners of the Republic, the public transport was
in the hands of the government. The Kenya Bus Service offered a service
that was cheap and reliable. Then the government went to shit and handed
over the running of KBS to the yokels in the City Council of Nairobi
who in turn handed it over to the whack-jobs in the Nairobi City
Commission and by the time the City Council was reinstated the rot had
set in and public transport was in the doghouse.
When the City Council gave the private matatu owners their inch, no one imagined that they would grab the one hundred miles they have so far or how fucked up public transport would become. All this was happening when the Kenya Railways Corporation was going through its own version of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy; it is a pale shadow of what it once was. It is the last choice of the truly desperate. No one alive can recall when last passengers willingly opted for the Kenya Railways passenger service.
The problems of public transport are not insurmountable. It has been done in jurisdictions more corrupt and dysfunctional than ours. It can be done. Whether it will depends entirely one whether Kenyans are willing to do what it takes to take back their roads and their services. The residents of Karen and Langata have demonstrated that sometimes even the strongest of wills cannot withstand the corruption in the halls of City Hall. But by refusing to stay the course, they betrayed themselves. They can no longer claim to be part of the solution to the problems that bedevil the City of Nairobi including, ironically, the lack of an efficient public transport system in Nairobi. Nairobians, and Kenyans in general, must play a more active role in the governance of the metropolis. It is the least they can do in order to drive the process of improving the quality of their lives.
Commuting in Sydney is an eye-opening experience. Sydney has its share of lawbreakers and miscreants, yet public transport is clean, safe, reliable, affordable and competitive. The buses and trains run on time. I may only have been here for a short while, but there have been no reports of buses crashing and taking innocent lives; no trains have gone off their rails or been held up because rail lines have been uprooted by rioting citizens. Perhaps it has something to do with the well-designed, well-built, well-marked roads or the fact that drivers stick to the rules and the police enforce them without favour. The emphasis on safety means that pedestrians don't wander into the road; they only cross at designated places and only when the lights are in their favour. I am yet to witness a driver jumping the lights, even at night. Perhaps the fear of the draconian fines keeps many in check; if not, the speed cameras surely do.
Special mention must be made of the buses. Regulated by the New South Wales Transport Authority, they are all of a standard design; there isn't the imagination of Kenyan transport companies in sight. While many play music, it is not the loud, intrusive noise that passes for music blasted by the crews of Kenyan matatus. Sydney's buses are massive behemoths that run on natural gas; the pollution is almost non-existent. Certainly you will not find buses belching diesel fumes like a smoker on his last cigarette. The seats are adequate and can accommodate even the widest of girths of which there are plentiful in Sydney. They are all clearly marked: Standing Room for 15 Passengers Only. It is reassuring to see that this rule is enforced by the drivers and obeyed even by the impatient passengers.
The civility that this engenders cannot be gainsaid. Passengers will wait patiently for others to disembark before boarding in sharp contrast to the rugby-scrum witnessed daily on the daily commute in Nairobi. If we are to make a success of our country we must take a less selfish approach to sharing the resources available and we must ensure that the men we entrust with the management of those resources are not only the best, but the most honourable. It is time we stopped holding our political, and other leaders, on pedestals and instead, held their feet to the fire.
When the City Council gave the private matatu owners their inch, no one imagined that they would grab the one hundred miles they have so far or how fucked up public transport would become. All this was happening when the Kenya Railways Corporation was going through its own version of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy; it is a pale shadow of what it once was. It is the last choice of the truly desperate. No one alive can recall when last passengers willingly opted for the Kenya Railways passenger service.
The problems of public transport are not insurmountable. It has been done in jurisdictions more corrupt and dysfunctional than ours. It can be done. Whether it will depends entirely one whether Kenyans are willing to do what it takes to take back their roads and their services. The residents of Karen and Langata have demonstrated that sometimes even the strongest of wills cannot withstand the corruption in the halls of City Hall. But by refusing to stay the course, they betrayed themselves. They can no longer claim to be part of the solution to the problems that bedevil the City of Nairobi including, ironically, the lack of an efficient public transport system in Nairobi. Nairobians, and Kenyans in general, must play a more active role in the governance of the metropolis. It is the least they can do in order to drive the process of improving the quality of their lives.
Commuting in Sydney is an eye-opening experience. Sydney has its share of lawbreakers and miscreants, yet public transport is clean, safe, reliable, affordable and competitive. The buses and trains run on time. I may only have been here for a short while, but there have been no reports of buses crashing and taking innocent lives; no trains have gone off their rails or been held up because rail lines have been uprooted by rioting citizens. Perhaps it has something to do with the well-designed, well-built, well-marked roads or the fact that drivers stick to the rules and the police enforce them without favour. The emphasis on safety means that pedestrians don't wander into the road; they only cross at designated places and only when the lights are in their favour. I am yet to witness a driver jumping the lights, even at night. Perhaps the fear of the draconian fines keeps many in check; if not, the speed cameras surely do.
Special mention must be made of the buses. Regulated by the New South Wales Transport Authority, they are all of a standard design; there isn't the imagination of Kenyan transport companies in sight. While many play music, it is not the loud, intrusive noise that passes for music blasted by the crews of Kenyan matatus. Sydney's buses are massive behemoths that run on natural gas; the pollution is almost non-existent. Certainly you will not find buses belching diesel fumes like a smoker on his last cigarette. The seats are adequate and can accommodate even the widest of girths of which there are plentiful in Sydney. They are all clearly marked: Standing Room for 15 Passengers Only. It is reassuring to see that this rule is enforced by the drivers and obeyed even by the impatient passengers.
The civility that this engenders cannot be gainsaid. Passengers will wait patiently for others to disembark before boarding in sharp contrast to the rugby-scrum witnessed daily on the daily commute in Nairobi. If we are to make a success of our country we must take a less selfish approach to sharing the resources available and we must ensure that the men we entrust with the management of those resources are not only the best, but the most honourable. It is time we stopped holding our political, and other leaders, on pedestals and instead, held their feet to the fire.
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