Editor's Review

Atwoli said Nairobi befits the status of a modern city thus the need to bring order.

The Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) secretary-general Francis Atwoli is backing the move by Nairobi governor Johnson Sakaja to relocate public transport vehicles from the city center.

The directive would see the PSVs occupying the Green Park Terminus situated at the periphery of the city.

The governor's move did not sit well with Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and former governor Mike Sonko.

They faulted Sakaja for shunning engagements with the stakeholders thus putting at risk the matatu sector in the city.

"If Sakaja continues to harass Nairobi business people we will mobilise people and send him home. We can also make the city ungovernable for him and finally send him home just like the first governor, Evans Kidero,” Sonko said.

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On his part the deputy president said;

"Governor Sakaja slow down. I mobilised the Kikuyu votes for you, so don’t hurt our businesses. This idea of removing matatus from town is not good. I will sit down with you so that we can come up with a solution. Matatus should be let to operate freely in town,"

However, Atwoli lauds Sakaja for the move, saying that order ought to be restored in the city given its status among African equals.

"I was recently in Egypt. They took a World Bank loan which they have utilised very well. They have put up expressways like the one in Nairobi. And that is why we want Sakaja to be supported to make Nairobi an international city like Cairo, Abuja, Johannesburg, Durban, Kigali, etc...not a city of matatu operators and drug traffickers," he said.

COTU boss Francis Atwoli. Photo: Twitter.

"We must bring sanity to our city, and we must support Sakaja the governor of Nairobi to make sure it has an organised public transport. Not the disorganised sector we currently have," Atwoli added.

Commenting on the matter while addressing Gikomba traders, Sakaja ruled out any bad blood between him and the deputy president, stating that he would engage him.

"I have seen online people peddling hate, as for me, I will not trade insults with my boss. There is no hate. We are one under Kenya Kwanza and such issues will be resolved amicably," he said.