J BEE, THIKA RESIDENTS HALT KENYA MPYA SERVICES TO DEMAND SAFETY.

Hospital Ward MCA Mwangi Wamwangi on Sunday led a section of Thika residents to demand an audience with Kenya Mpya company officials regarding to their buses frequent cases of accidents. They marched from Thika Police Station where they had gone to witness the wreckage of a car belonging to Mr. Onesmus Kimani Ndung'u who died this morning after being involved in an accident with a Kenya Mpya bus. 

Upon arrival at the main bus station, they prevented all Kenya Mpya buses from ferrying passengers saying that they needed the officials so that they could discuss how they could streamline their operations to avoid further loss of innocent lives.

Mr. Onesmus is a real estate agent and the vice chairperson of Ngogoyo 237 Sacco.

For more than an hour, no Kenya Mpya bus was allowed to ferry any passenger and those who had boarded were forced to alight. There ensued some stand off between these irate mob and the Kenya Mpya crew as the latter tried to defy the mob.

Luckily, Hospita, was able to cool off the tension, pleading with the two groups to give reason a chance. Even though the MCA demanded an audience with the management, none came probably because of fearing for their safety. He added that he was trying to prevent any eventuality of the situation getting ugly since it was apparent that the mob was getting more and more agitated with the lack of response from the officials of the bus company.

Mr. Wamwangi said that it was only prudent for the officials to come and reasoned with their clients so as to prevent worse scenerials. He wondered why only the buses from the company got involved in accidents all the time.

He also questioned the NTSA's laxity to deal with the perennial accidents Kenya Mpya fleets were getting involved in the recent times. 

"How comes we don't see any action against these people (Kenya Mpya) yet when Embassava was involved in just a single incident the NTSA temporarily cancelled their PSV license? It seems they are trully compromised in the case of Kenya Mpya," he said.

Anyway, after speaking with one of the representatives who manned the touts, the two groups agreed to ease off the stand off and let the buses continue with operations pending further deliberations with the higher authorities.

Security was tight at the main stage just in case the situation went out of hand. However, the police never provoked any confrontation with the groups but promised to protect everyone involved.

Buses belonging to Kenya Mpya Bus Company have been in the news lately for a spate of continuos accidents. On Friday, company officials and crew had been summoned for a meeting by the NTSA to discuss this issue. Hardly a day had gone before the same company having its bus in the news again for the same.

Thika District Business Association (TDBA) has in the recent weeks complained about this situation and demanded action to be taken to stop this menace.