Effects of Integrated National Transport Policy on Transport Service Delivery in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Abstract

Kenya has been grappling with numerous problems associated with informal privatised public transport service. The County City of Nairobi public transit and other urban areas are marred with a lot of negative challenges which are not the desired traits of mass urban public transit. In response, the Ministry of Transport formulated the Legal notice No. 161 of 2003 that gave birth to Integrated National Transport Policy which aimed at streamlined Public Service Vehicle operations such as internal control, efficiency, affordable and safe transport service. This study investigates the effects of introduction of the policy and regulation on customer service in public transport sector by seeking to establish the extent that Sessional Paper No. 2 of 2012 on the Integrated National Transport Policy and National Transport and Safety Authority Regulations 2013 have been implemented; characteristics of PSV industry operations; consumer satisfaction with PSV service quality offered after formulation of the policy and how the current regulatory structure be combined with other approaches for improved transport system. The research used non experimental study design to get primary data from a sample of 208 household respondents and 12 key informants. Data was collected using questionnaires and analysed quantitatively using SPSS to yield descriptive and inferential test statistics. Findings were presented in table, figures and charts. The results showed that; first, participants were indifferent as to the extent of implementation. There were exhibition of compliance and at the same time deficiencies in implementing the same. In regard to operational level, the study established organisation level of the PSV industry ranks as low to medium. Half of participants agreed that PSV service quality has improved with the implementation of the requirement for the formation of PSV SACCOs. On how the current regulation can be structured with other approaches for transport reform, most of respondents indicated that there are enough laws and regulations to manage the commuter transport sector and thus called for stringency in the implementation of these regulations. Other proposals from the field included construction of more feeder roads. This was followed by those who said there is need to regulate fare charged. However, from dispatch bus per route survey and field experience, the priority areas would be improvement of junction to enhance traffic flow; embed Transit Oriented Development in transportation planning and streamline weaknesses evident in the current policies. The research hypothesis established that implementation of the Policy has led to improvement in service delivery. In overall, there is some improvement in service delivery/ service quality. However, these improvements do not massively stands out as certain aspects are not yet achieved. It is only the third research question that returned a clear negative verdict of non-improvement. First and second research question had both negative and positive response of nearly equal weighting. Therefore, the INTP and NTSA 2013 have made tremendous contribution but still leaves a lot to be desired as it only addresses issues of licensing and speed regulations while ignoring other pertinent issues such as flow control, physical bottlenecks, formalisation of the sector, reduction in conflict, passenger comfort, routing issues and passenger safety that would give birth to a holistic integrative approach. Key words: Integrated Transport Policy, urban public transport, Nairobi, Performance Evaluation and Service Delivery.