On Friday, May 29, motorists using the Lamu-Witu-Garsen Road were stranded after the road was blocked by two long-distance buses parked on both lanes of the highway.

The buses belonging to Tawakal and Buscar Bus Companies were used to protest the ongoing ban on night travel along the highway imposed by the government.

Locals accused the Kenya Kwanza regime of insisting on effecting an embargo on the night-travel ban in defiance of a court order that directed the lifting of the ban.

Truck drivers who joined the protests claimed that the illegal ban had cost them financial loss and urged the government to respect the court order.

“If the courts have issued an order yet, until now it has not been implemented, which means that they have chosen to undermine the courts. The judiciary is an independent entity and needs to be respected,” a driver stated.

Passengers also complained of spending a long time on the road due to the lengthy inspection of occupants of private and long-distance vehicles along the route.

Another driver disclosed that they resorted to paralysing traffic along the highway because the government did not recognise the legal approach to handling the matter.

He explained that while they understood that the ban on night travel was informed by heightened insecurity, other parts of the country suffered from insecurity, but night travel was not banned in those areas.

The two bus companies opined that instead of banning night travel, the government should provide security, including police and army escorts for vehicles plying the route.

Locals pleaded with President William Ruto, arguing that the restriction of night travel would undermine the economy of Lamu County and make life unbearable for its residents.

During his tour of the region, Ruto urged the residents to be patient and give security agencies ample time to deliberate and act on the matter, as the Ministry was yet to receive the court orders directly.

He acknowledged that the security along the Lamu-Garsen Road had improved, but wanted the security officers to assess the situation and determine whether it was right to lift the ban.

The ban on night travel was first effected in 2017 and was meant to last for 90 days. However, it has since been extended to nearly a decade.

When the government at the time imposed the ban, there were several attacks on passenger buses and personal vehicles by suspected Al Shabaab militants who were hiding in the Boni forest.