Last Year in December, millions on Nairobi citizens woke up to a rude shock after the city county office moved to ban matatus from the CBD. this forced immense pressure on the already scanty pedestrian resources available such as footbridges and footpaths.
“We are in the process of acquiring the first batch of 64 BRT buses from South Africa. We are yet to establish the total amount of money we will spend on these buses but a BRT bus usually goes for Sh25 million,”
Said the Transport CS Macharia…. But that was a staggering 4 Months ago.
The Transport CS James Macharia announced the introduction of Bus Rapid Transit system where by high capacity buses would be ferrying citizens to ease congestion. 64 high capacity buses were to be acquired at a cost of 25 Million each.
Kenya Urban Roads Authority then went ahead to mark Thika Superhighway lanes that will accommodate the buses, giving Kenyans hope of the advent of the revolutionary BRT system
Fast forward 5 Months later, Nairobi is still congested with no sight of the much anticipated BRT buses. Local manufacturers who had initially pledged to have capacity to supply the buses, seem to have been sidelined with the CS claiming that they did not meet the standards to supply the High Capacity buses.
Moreover, the Transport CS has not updated Nairobians on the said BRT Buses, nor apologizing for the delay in the much needed implementation of the decongestion plans. This could lead to speculations of graft, inconsistency and false promises on the part of the Government of Kenya, being that the EU has already committed 5Billion shillings towards the project.
It is a pity to KENYANS that flagged projects are turning out to be stalled after all and only time will tell if the government is serious on keeping its promises of better costs of living.
