Public Service Vehicles(PSV) will as from Monday 9th 2021 start carrying full capacity. This is as per Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) in the Ministry of Transport Christopher Obure.
Talking after a Friday meeting with public service partners, Obure said the business had consented to self-regulate after an audit of existing Covid-19 conventions.
“We need to build confidence that we can allow for full capacity while at the same time ensuring continued protection of the answers against the spread of rapidly mutating variants of Covid-19,’’ said Obure.
Obure said matatus and Saccos will be entrusted with guaranteeing consistence with Covid-19 guidelines for the continued protection of travelers against the spread of Covid.
‘‘Crews are to make constant on-board announcements reminding passengers on the need to uphold personal precautionary measures and also to ensure that the vehicle is disinfected after every trip,’’ said Obure in a statement.
Obure further insisted that there will be no hawking, preaching or begging on PSVs and discouraged unnecessary stopovers.
Building up Obure’s suppositions, Matatu Owners Association director Dickson Mbugua said those matatus and Saccos found faulting the new measures risk losing their licenses.
Edwin Mukabana, the administrator of the Association of Bus Operators Kenya and Federation of Public, Transport Sector Association, added that operators likewise consented to empower the use of cashless payment.
‘‘That has been being practised on long-distance although we have been having issues with short distance travel, rural and urban. But you can be sure that we have agreed that mobile money as the source of payment and we encourage those who have put stickers of no mobile money to remove it because, if they are not aware, there is a regulation that requires them to have cashless ticketing. ,’’ he said.
Mukabana noted that the business has lost over Sh31 billion in income and recorded job losses of more than 127,000 in metropolitan regions.
