Cartels have been blamed for the congestion with Nairobi’s CBD as it has now emerged that cartels are issuing paking slots to new Saccos yet the slots have been taken.
This was established when some SACCO officials appeared before the County Transport Committee to deliberate how to reduce increased congestion in the CBD.
Committee Chairman James Mwangi on Tuesday said there has been disorderliness and insanity in the CBD, brought about by double parking, parking in loading zones, parking on pavements and also in front of business premises.
Mwangi also said there have been complaints of saccos using officials at City Hall to obtain more parking space.
“Latema Road is chaotic, you find that there are like four SACCOs operating in a single entity whereby they have been only allocated two slots and its just behind the fire station so in case of an emergency the fire engines wouldn’t have any way of passing and reaching the emergency site on time. On Tom Mboya, you find that the matatus have been allocated slots at the exit of the CBD, honestly we must clear our exits we can’t take one hour to get to globe just because the matatus are double parking waiting to enter the slot,”said committee vice chair Mark Mugambi
Matatu Owners association chair person, Simon Kimutai confirmed that there are indeed cartels extorting matatu owners and if one cannot afford the requested fee then they are not allocated parking space.
He added that he is trusting the committee to come up with a solution to ease their operations.
“I believe the transport committee is a very powerful organ and I believe they will find a way for us to carry out our operations without interference.” He said.
The committee has now stopped the parking slot allocation until the matter is resolved.
