Laudable Policy

The transport minister's u-turn on the policy outlining the phasing out of the vehicles on Kenyan roads is most welcome.This must be an overwhelming call for celebration to the touts, drivers and the ‘matatu’ terminus boys popularly referred to as ‘manabas’. This is the sector in the ‘matatu’ industry significantly employing a great number of Kenyan youth set. It is such a sizable number any serious policy maker would never bypass.

Earlier on the government had formulated a policy to get rid of these vehicles in the public transport. Other than high traffic on the roads the sector had been experiencing high number of accidents due to reckless driving and lawlessness.

Noteworthy;phasing out of the fourteen seat ‘matatus’ would have led to more devastating consequences.To start with,the loss of jobs to many youth which in turn would have resulted to several economic and social tribulations such as:-

•    High crime rate such as mugging and robbery
•    Lawlessness due to high number of youth idling
•    Illegal trading of outlawed drugs
•    Rise in the HIV/AIDs scourge
•   Increased vacuum of transport vehicles leading to wastage of more man hours at the bus stages
•   Slow economic growth due to high rate of unemployment 
• Increased  illiteracy level due to lack of fees

Remarkably,the young who would have been the hard hit, have a reason to smile.Many of the hazards which would have been due to the policy will now be a thing of the past.Commendable, honorable minister.Otherwise a more productive policy need be formulated to solve the underlying issues once and for all.