Mohammed Hersi . A hotelier passionate about Tourism & Governance in Africa

PSV Vehicles / Matatus as Tour Vans .

Ministry Of Tourism & Wildlife have now banned PSVs in our national parks as along as they are not TSV qualified. TSV is Tourist Service Vehicle be it domestic or International. There are strict rules to gollow to qualify and it is managed by Tourism Regulatory Authority a GOK entity.

I have seen several write up where some of us including some of my friends have even gone ahead to claim it is racism. You know very well that when you claim there is racism in a case in Kenya the debate is lost before you even begin.

Fact: law was enacted where any firm intending to receive paying guests must apply for TSV license for both driver and the vehicle just the way you need PSV to operate as a Matatu.

First things first . The directive DOES NOT outlaw school buses if anything we encourage children to visit our park they are the future custodians of these God given resource. School buses are NOT PSVs and the directive is NOT targeting them .

Resident and anyone in a private car can also acess the park as self drive as long as they observe park rules but once they start taking paying clients then they must also conform, apply and meet the strict TSV license conditions . There is no compromise on that . Directive does NOT also outlaw private cars as long as it is a family and NOT paying passengers. You can only lie for a while if you are frequent with numerous passengers you want to qualify as ” family ” Same thing applies to PSV sector . If you attempted to use your personal car without a PSV license you’ll not know what hit you. Please ask probox owners .

Fact is that Matatus and PSVs have made nonsense of park rules and undermining all the good efforts by industry players to position Kenya as good safari destination .

Once a vehicle is a PSV and they are taking paying clients then they MUST apply for TSV and conform. One of the condition is a qualified guide not any dude who can drive. In the absence of that Matatus should stick to their lane. We DON’T invade their lane either but many times they invade ours making our industry look really bad. There is NO industry that does NOT have barriers to entry. Leading guides like Paul Kirui, Raphael Koikai, John Kangethe, Jay Kang’e will tell you how much they invest to be professional guides.

Lets be real , PSVs operate worse than cartels . Wake up and try to put your matatu on say Nbi Meru or Nbi Narok route without paying the cartels for the route and kickbacks . They even allocate you a driver and a manamba . They even decide how much to pay you. Then they want to do tourism business without any rules ? Never that must be stopped.

We want them to apply , qualify and buy TSV license which KATO does NOT control. They also don’t have to be in KATO to get TSV license and a qualified driver guide.

It is sad that some see racism in this move. Well we will not fall for that cheap stunt that sounds like a broken record. The Matatu and even that Uber at Nbi National Park were ferrying Mzungus who feel they got a good deal and in reality they’ve been ripped off with a very poor delivery and in the process making Kenya a cheap destination. If that visitor fell out of that Uber window he would be referred to as tourist and how lax we are with our park safety rules We are competing against TZ. Namibia . SA or Botswana and strict rules apply. While God has been kind enough wiyh great resource we will not a few rogue players to mess the tour industry.

How much game can you see in a Uber Chap Chap ? You saw the driver and his client half body out of the car. Is that what we are advocating for?

We see hundreds of private cars in our parks and we have no issue with that but we cannot have PSVs . Let them stick to their lane . They also have strict and punitive barriers to entry if you were to venture into that business.

Some claim tourism industry is an elitist industry. That claim holds no water. 100 % of our TSV vehicles are driven by Kenyans who are forced to qualify as guides and we can not advocate for a Matatu just to drive in and out as they please. Kenyans own the businesses and we employ thousands of Kenyans NOT guys from Siberia . We ain’t aliens .

Most of the time we keep giving the example of Rwanda , Dubai or Singapore where things work. Yes they work because they observe strict rules in anything they do. If we want law and order we must also start behaving in an orderly manner.

We fully support the move by our ministry to bring back sanity to our delicate industry. Let PSVs stick to their lane, TSVs do.

Mohammed Hersi
Chairman
Kenya Tourism Federation