Touts & Drivers to Wear Uniforms With Name and Phone Number in new Proposal
A proposal to require matatu touts and conductors to don uniforms displaying their names and contact details has caused controversy within the industry.
Professor Margaret Kamar, a Jubilee Nominated Senator, presented the proposal in the Senate on Thursday, urging senators to scrutinize the matatu sector in order to reinstate order.
She emphasized that implementing this measure would help control unruly individuals who have been causing chaos in the sector, contributing to a rise in incidents of passenger harassment.
“The Senators should go incognito and board matatus to know whether the rules are been adhered to by matatu drivers and conductors. Women have had a raw deal in this public transport.
“We’ve had cases whereby someone comes and sits on you, touches them inappropriately as well as cases of overloading,” she explained.
“We should reach a level where matatu touts have their names and contacts on their uniforms so that we know who they are. They behave the way they do because they think nobody sees them. Thank God for social media these days, where these incidents are posted.”
Kamar additionally called for immediate reforms to be implemented in the sector, emphasizing the need to restore order and sanity.
“Because we are a service nation, can we have these people work like waiters with name tags?” she added.
The professor brought attention to a recent incident on Thika Road, where a matatu tout assaulted a female passenger who had refused to board the vehicle.
However, her suggestion has been rejected by matatu stakeholders who argue that the offenses are primarily committed by criminals rather than the Public Service Vehicle (PSV) crew.
“Who attacks these passengers? You’ll find it’s mostly hooligans at the stages and not the PSV crew. Let them do their research properly or they can come to the lead operators, and we will tell them what happens. They should not come up with outrageous means of harassing people,” Dickson Mbugua, Chairman of Matatu Welfare Association, told Kenyans.co.ke.
“They have forgotten that the drivers have badges which is a requirement according to law. Why are they overlooking that? What more do they want?”
Mbugua pointed out that if the proposal were to be accepted, it could place a burden on the Public Service Vehicle (PSV) operators and would not effectively bring order to the sector.
“They want to add liabilities to the PSV operators. These things work on sectors including hospitals and hotels but not the matatu,” he added.
“At times, Lawmakers talk as if they live on the moon. Police should investigate these cases of harassment on a case-by-case basis to determine whether it’s the crew or it’s outsiders.”
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Touts & Drivers to Wear Uniforms With Name and Phone Number in new Proposal
