The Matatu Mode Of Public Transport In Metropolitan Nairobi

Transport discourse often concentrates on what is missing from transport policy and practice in developing countries vis-à-vis high-income countries rather than articulating local creativity in responding to transport needs as revealed in informal public transport modes such as matatu, motorcycle, bicycle and animal transport. This book helps to correct some of the tendency of inadequate contextualization of knowledge, technology and practice learning and transfer from one setting to another in transport and other development programmes. While countries such as Kenya have ambitions to develop their transport systems to fit into the globalized transport system, they also need to plan transport for ordinary life in both urban and rural areas. The matatu service, provided by privately-owned transport carriers, can be seen as a mirror of the life of Kenya, revealing how indigenous African entrepreneurship and capitalism straddles various economic, political and social systems. This book offers a phenomenological and situated analysis of the matatu entrepreneurship in the political economy of Kenya and its embeddedness in society. By adopting a social science approach, this book highlights a number of political, social and practical issues to demonstrate the matatu is not a decontextualized, disembodied and lifeless piece of moving metal carrying people and goods but rather part of a self-organizing industry, with its own logic of practice. This book is dedicated to Ajanga Khayesi.

Where can one get a synthesis of research findings on urban development planning in Africa? This book addresses this gap in knowledge by distilling existing research to provide insights into theories, research designs, empirical findings and approaches on urban development planning in Africa. Starting with the overall planning culture and strategies, the book chapters move on to specific themes such as governance, population, poverty, water, recreation, transport, agriculture, air quality and rural-urban linkages. This book reduces the prevailing risk of unnecessary duplication of research and the inadequate attention that is being given to extending research in new areas. This situation has partly been due to existing research remaining scattered in different organizations and publications and has not been subjected to critical synthesis to unearth any new developments that it contains. The book makes available research findings to be utilized in current and future urban development planning in Africa.

This book presents the results of the "African Urban Management" project designed to study comparatively governmental responses to the gap between the realities of official plans and perspectives and the mushrooming world of the urban poor in African cities.

Public transport systems in contemporary Sub-Saharan African cities are heavily reliant upon paratransit services. These services are defined as informal transportation which operates between the public and individual private spheres. In Africa paratransit is characterized by low quality of vehicles and chaotic management but it also provides cheap, accessible and flexible transport solutions for the urban poor. It is typically poorly regulated and operates as a set of informal businesses. A common result of weak public sector regulation and a fare strategy in which owners claim a fixed daily revenue target and drivers who keep the variable balance as income, is destructive competition and poor quality of service. There is an incontrovertible case for improving the quality, reliability and coverage of public transport systems, and some city governments have attempted to do so by initiating reform projects that envisage the phased replacement of paratransit operations with formalised bus rapid transit systems. In this book the authors argue that there are, however, path dependencies and constraints that limit the possible extent of public transport system reform. Paratransit operations also have some inherent advantages with respect to demand responsiveness and service innovation. Attempts to eradicate paratransit may be neither pragmatic nor strategic. Two future scenarios are likely: hybrid systems comprised of both paratransit and formally planned modes; and systems improved by upgrades and strengthened regulation of existing paratransit services. The business strategies and aspirations of incumbent paratransit operators in three case cities – Cape Town, Dar es Salaam and Nairobi – are discussed, as well as their attitudes towards emerging public transport reform projects. International experiences of hybrid system regulation and paratransit business development are reviewed in order to explore policy options. The authors contend that policies recognising paratransit operators, and seeking contextually appropriate complementarity with formalised planned services, will produce greater benefits than policies ignoring their continued existence.

This study will seek to find out the effects of strategic planning on enhancing investments in public transport Saccos in Kenya. The study will also seek to find out recent changes in operation of public transport in Kenya for example new vehicles on the road, new safety rules and the registration of co-operative societies to replace the Matatu Welfare Associations in a new development which started from early 1990’s. Cooperatives are economic units by which members mobilize their financial resources through savings. It is estimated that this sector contributes about 20% to the gross Domestic Product. Although this sector is considered both economically and socially important, sectoral report indicates that nearly 2% of savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOs) collapse every year and about 6% of registered members withdraw their membership annually. Some SACCOs pay dividends which are as low as 3.5%. It is not clear why there is a deteriorating trend in most of the societies despite government’s financial regulations being in operation since 2004 that were meant to help SACCOs achieve sustainability through growth and financial stability. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of government’s financial regulations on investment performance in SACCOs in Nairobi County. The study adopted descriptive research design and purposive sampling method. The research adopted a self administered questionnaire which was used to collect quantitative data. The study units comprised 104 sacco societies of public transport in Nairobi County. The questionnaire was designed based on a Five Lickert scale. However, only 95 Saccos were actively in operation. The other 9 were either dormant or inactive. Therefore, 87 Saccos were randomly sampled and studies. The findings show that government financial regulations have been moderately regulated with a weighted mean of 2.805. Concerning the approval of maximum borrowing powers by members, a weighted mean score of 3.816 on the scale was posted. It is therefore expected that with this large extent of implementation of this regulation, Saccos will have a strong financial stability since they will have fewer loans to service. The study also found out that performance of Saccos in terms of efficient and prompt disbursement of loans is quite wanting with a weighted mean score 2.0919. Key recommendations were to the Ministry of Co-operative Development to mobilize resources to educate the members and management committees of the societies for better performance, and adherence to the regulations laid down by the government.