CRACK DOWN
JANUARY 11, 2010
BY EUGENE OMILO
Commuters in Mombasa yesterday experienced a slight shortage of PSV vehicles after Traffic police officers cracked a whip on errant drivers and conductors breaking traffic rules netting several matatus in the process.
Mombasa traffic commandant Charles Koskei said a total of 29 drivers and conductors were arrested yesterday morning and were due to be taken to court.
Most of them will be charged with obstruction, failure to put on uniform, and lacking PSV licenses and badges.
Koskei said the police have a duty to enforce the law and will not relent on their effort to bring safety to Kenyan roads.
“The problem is not us, we cannot allow unqualified PSV drivers to endanger the lives of passengers,” he said.
“We have no problem with the vehicles, we are only keeping them here for their safety but the owners will have themselves to blame for employing people who are unruly or unqualified,” he added.
He said most drivers hand over their vehicles to unqualified drivers popularly known as squad drivers when they go to rest then take over from them later on in the day.
He said matatu owners are at liberty to collect the vehicles but warned them against allowing unqualified drivers to drive their vehicles as police will not spare them.
“This is not harassment, infact we are sympathetic to the owners of these vehicles because they are supposed to be in business but we cannot allow them to be driven by people who are not qualified,” said Koskei.
He said patrols will be intensified and arrests made in a bid to bring order in the industry.
The crackdown comes only a week after public service vehicle operators staged a nationwide strike to protest alleged police harassment.
ENDS.
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