Hours after blasting Kidero, President Uhuru creates new Transport Authority for the city

dennis kibet

February 10, 2017 2:23 PM

NAMATA will cover the counties of Nairobi City and its environs of Kiambu, Kajiado, Machakos and Murang’a.

Nairobi Governor and President Uhuru Kenyatta.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has executed an Executive Order creating the Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (NAMATA) under the provisions of the State Corporations Act.

The Executive Order comes hours after the president blasted Governor Evans Kidero saying he had failed Nairobi residents.

Kenyatta said Jubilee had many qualified leaders to replace him.

“You know the Nairobi government you elected. What has it done? Tell me,” Mr Kenyatta said at Muthurwa market.

The new transport authority will formulate a sustainable integrated public transport strategy based on the development of a sustainable urban mobility plan that will be the basis for the orderly and structured development of the proposed Metropolitan Area mass-transit system. This incorporates both bus rapid-transit and commuter rail.

Policy intervention

“NAMATA is a bold and visionary policy intervention that, for the first time in our nation’s history, provides a comprehensive and dynamic platform for addressing the decades-old challenges in the transport sector that have bedeviled the Metropolitan Area,” State House Spokesman Manoah Esipisu said.

He said the Authority is a consequence of various Presidential interventions and directives issued since 2013 that are geared towards positively redefining the nation’s capital as well as the wider Metropolitan Area that encompasses four other counties.

These elements are part of the Jubilee Administration’s wider plan of improving Kenya’s transport infrastructure as a spur for social and economic development.

The State House Spokesperson said the establishment rationale of the Authority is based on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in August 2013 between the National Government, through the Ministry of Transport, on one part; and the county governments of Nairobi City, Kiambu, Murang’a, Machakos and Kajiado on the other part.

dennis kibet