PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM * Kenya - Popular Matatu buses now safer
NAIROBI,Kenya -BusinessWeek (USA), by EDWARD HARRIS -5 Dec 2007: -- It's happy hour in Kenya's capital and The Whistler is filled to bursting, pulsing with American hip hop tunes, women twitching their hips on a flat-screen television showing music videos. But the customers aren't getting on the dance floor. They're getting home... Thousands of privately owned Matatu buses compete for passengers with flashy paint jobs, names like Razmatazz, Czar, House Snoop and Gambino Family and onboard audiovisual entertainment: bass-heavy and played at top volume... While reckless driving and spotty law enforcement continue, Kenyans say a government regulations and enforcement initiative has boosted Matatus' safety and comfort -- making it a relatively successful drive by an African government to tame private industry without trampling it... The Matatus, essentially souped-up minibuses, carry about a dozen passengers and are as old as the country itself. Kenya's leaders after 1963 independence from Britain allowed the Matatu sector to develop with little government interference -- either in tax collection or safety regulations... (Video from YouTube, by andywolf100 -July 17, 2006: a short vid I filmed from a bus going from central Nairobi to Buruburu. You will also come across lots of police checkpoints as they look for hijackers, make sure that when you are stoped you have your seat belt on as the police willl fine anyone who does not !!)
Labels: public transport system
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