Night buses are still banned in Kenya in the wake of the recent crashes. The ban was initially for Christmas Day but has been extended indefinitely.
This bottleneck means the day buses are fully booked well in advance, but there is still the Nairobi-Mombasa train. It runs three times per week though it is prone to delays. If you find 1st and 2nd class are full (which is the case now) and if you are adventurous, you can travel 3rd class for 680 shillings.
There have certainly been some spectacularly awful and tragic crashes involving buses(and other vehicles) at night for the last week...month...years...and many many calls to the Kenyan government to "do something" about it. The Traffic police seem to be totally helpless against the suicidal overtaking that goes on night or day! Could this mean they are finally getting serious about Kenyan roads?
The ban is national, the new regulation saying that all psv providers who want to operate a night service have to apply for a night travel licence from the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) was gazetted last week, on the 17th and the order was issued on Xmas Day by the Transport Ministry PS.
It caused mayhem throughout the country, thousands of people heading back to their villages for Xmas ended up stranded, particularly in Nairobi.
They have also launched a breathalyser campaign, the Alcoblow has been re-introduced, quite a few drivers have been arrested for drunk driving in Nairobi and Mombasa over the last few days.
The government is looking to introduce new traffic laws but Kenya already has decent traffic laws, it is just that they are not enforced, they were brought in and enforced by a previous Minister of Transport, and made a significant difference but fell into disuse when he was moved to another post.
The breath-testers will either be run off their feet; get murdered; or end up very very rich by turning a blind eye to the very large number of truck drivers who have had one or two too many. Still its a great first step. Now all they have to do is fix the ICC trials and they will have nothing to worry about!!!
It's the cavalier - you could even say sledge hammer - approach to law enforcement in Kenya that bothers me. Nothing done for ages, then a draconian crackdown that has stranded perhaps millions of people. One extreme to the other. They should have put the bus companies on notice and given them a period to comply. I grabbed that 3rd class train ticket, and though it was a tortuous ride - 20 hours in all with the usual delays - at least I am back on the coast.
With bus capacity essentially cut in half, this problem will carry over well into January.