The Passenger Service Vehicles (PSV) on Mombasa roads have exorbitantly hiked fares by 100 percent starting on Monday morning in a bid to cover for possible lose while complying with government’s directives to carry limited passengers per trip.
In a spot-check by KNA around the island City of Mombasa, many passengers were stranded following the increased commuter charges from the city estates to the city center.
Those who managed to get transport through the public means, confessed to having paid twice as they were used to before the coronavirus pandemic.
Passengers KNA interviewed from Bamburi, Changamwe, Mikindani, Miritini, Tudor, and Mishomoroni among other satellite towns, said they paid twice as much as they were charged before the health directives were imposed.
One Fatuma Abdalla, said she would be forced to remain home as from tomorrow since her budget does not allow her to pay such a rate for transport while she only works for Sh.200 a day in town.
She said she would have to remain home or walk a long distance to save the Sh.200 which she gets from her casual work in a town’s business establishment.
“If I pay Sh.100 in the morning and another Sh.100 in the evening, that means I spend all I gets in a day from my informal employment every day,” she lamented.
Other passengers interviewed complained that the vehicles were charging the hiked fares and dropping them before they reached their destinations.
The distraught passengers are calling on the government to take action on the notorious matatu business people who drop them halfway to their destinations to go collect the many stranded passengers on the roads while charging exorbitant fares.
By Joseph Kamolo
