Move matatus out of Nairobi CBD

It's only in Nairobi where public passenger vehicles stand anywhere in the central business district, blocking shop entrances and causing traffic jams.

The Green Park bus terminal was commissioned by President Uhuru in 2020 under General Mohamed Badi to decongest and remove matatus from the central business district.

Efforts to move matatus have always been thwarted and politicised, especially Central Kenya politicians who claim their people are being victimised. Ironically, most Nairobi voters are from Opposition parties as statistics show.

As a result, Nairobi is the only city in Kenya where matatus drop passengers in town during rush hours then park in front of shops, office buildings.

Business owners running shops have no breathing space. Even customers find it a nightmare to access shops whose security is compromised by touts who monitor all shop and customer operations.

Even loading or unloading merchandise is a nightmare, yet these shops and offices are crucial to the county and national governments for offering rare employment to the youth, raising the much-needed revenue in the form of taxation that drives our economy.

Since the collapse of the iconic Kenya Bus company, Nairobi has been held hostage, especially by occupants of state house, whose only interest is political survival, to the suffering of residents.

It's a fallacy to say that Green Park cannot host all Nairobi matatus. Of course, no bus park can, given that the space in Nairobi is limited. Even the iconic Kenya Bus station could only accommodate a few buses but they had other bus terminals outside the city centre like Kinoo and Eastleigh.

A bus station is not a godown and matatus not carrying passengers have no business parking all day in town. Nairobi County must introduce hourly parking to decongest the CBD. Time to move matatus out of the CBD is now.

Mr Musamali is a Nairobi resident