In announcing plans to set up a robust public transport system with dedicated bus lanes, and an accompanying request that the City Council put in place measures to encourage the utilisation of public transport, the ministry is following in the steps of cities worldwide that elected to use innovative bus systems to replicate at lower cost the benefits of such mass transit systems as would be offered by heavy and light rail systems. Where successful, such policies have quickly transformed streets that were once choking with smog and the noise of traffic into beautiful avenues where city residents can quickly and cheaply commute to work and business, all without placing too heavy a burden on the environment. 

And it is not just the green of Nairobi's parks that would enjoy the relief of diminished traffic. If, as expected, the city council obliges and raises parking fees, the further reduction in overall city traffic should also serve to moderate national demand for private cars and ever-costlier petroleum imports (prices up by more than 400% in the last five years) and moderate the burden these impose on foreign exchange reserves. The increased use of bicycles and longer buses like double-deckers or articulated buses (like bendy-buses or even longer) should lead to a further attenuation in per-capita fuel consumption. And, if the plans prove successful, and commute times are drastically shortened by an efficient and affordable service, more city residents would also be encouraged to move into the suburbs and so reduce housing pressure on the city.

So far, the implementation of the early phases of the plan has Double M, one of the previously mentioned bus companies, running a shuttle service into the Central Business District at 20/- a turn. Matatus are still restricted to a feeder role extending to a market on the outskirts of the city from where they have to drop off commuters who can then board the shuttle service, or alternatively walk into town. It is for this disruption to the lives of innocent commuters that this policy has gained its infamy, and it is for failing to look at the wider picture that the local government minister's innovation is now best known.

It is true that Kenyans have very short memories; a roads and public works minister who pushed through similarly necessary but draconian and poorly thought-out measures against illegal city structures has recently been championed as a presidential advocate for the poor. But the local government minister, who is said to harbour ambitious notions of rising to higher political office, has now in his hands a real opportunity to show Kenyans what he could deliver to them if president. The first step would be the realisation that the project he has embarked on is larger than a mere transport issue. Secondly, measures as far-reaching, exigent and radical as this one require a great degree of community participation and a wider, more integrated, approach towards sustainability. The overarching goal of an improvement in the quality of life for Nairobi's residents demands the inclusion in decision making of as wide an array of interests as possible and the appearance of fair play at all times.  

The innovation here, the setting up a Bus Rapid System or one like it, involves more than just stopping traffic coming into the city centre and setting aside exclusive rights of way for buses, it involves an overhaul of the entire perception of Nairobi as the core to which all roads lead, it will involve a change in payment systems for transport services, it will require a rethink of government policy on housing and land management in the capital, it will require measures that persuade consumers that public transport is better for them (rather than compulsive measures aimed at ensuring they use public transport) and finally, it asks for measures that lead to a decentralisation of business from the Central Business District. So it is that fares for example, which at present constitute up to 40% of incomes; will have to be greatly reduced and buses made more comfortable and efficient to persuade the growing middle class to abandon their cars for public systems.

In cities like Curitiba in Brazil, similar measures have led to three quarters of the population faithfully taking up public transport even though they own cars and can afford to go into work by private means. There a 5-tier system there, see inset, with a single payment that ensures  buses are both frequent (some every 90 seconds) and also appropriate to the weight of demand on that route.  

Most importantly though, in a city like Nairobi, where the matatu industry employs hundreds of thousands and puts food on the tables of many more, the reduction in incomes from the successful implementation of such plans should be a matter for great concern as it would drastically reduce incomes and leave jobless, countless young . Other cities have chosen to employ those left behind by the formalisation of the transport industry in city cleaning and recycling efforts. Payments for plastic waste, for example are a large source of income for the poor in South American cities. In Nairobi, policies aimed at discouraging the entry of private vehicles into the Central Business District should be followed with the establishment of parking centres in the outskirts of the cities. From here, youth who would otherwise have been employed in the matatu business can earn themselves a living with formalised and professional valet and car repair/ servicing.

And it should not end at that, the city fathers and the Ministry of Local Government seem to believe that all unemployed Kenyans are hawkers-without-a-corner or artisans-without-a-workshop. While there are many such youth (in Curitiba, sheltered bus-stops have small retail outlets attached to them), many others are trained as accountants, lawyers, technicians and marketers, and would benefit greatly from the erection of business parks- perhaps with subsidised amenities like electricity and the internet.

Can Uhuru deliver such a revolution? That, we cannot yet tell, but he will first have to admit that this is not a job for one man, decrees delivered from on high will just not cut it.