Ten days after the National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA) suspended Mombasa-based transportation company, the Modern Coast Express following a bus accident that occurred on Jamhuri Day on the Mombasa-Nairobi, the latter has announced that it can resume operations.
Yet, hours ago, NTSA in a tweet had announced that this was not the case.
” To our customers, we would like to clarify that we received the letter below from NTSA Kenya lifting our suspension, hence resumption of operations,” says the communique.
While stating that it would clarify its next step, Modern Coast Express has stated that the NTSA had based its action based on an earlier communique, in which it had explained that its action was based on the need to ensure that that following a meeting by NTSA members, the regulator had decided to suspend the license of 73 Modern Coast Express buses until they had passed inspection.
” All drivers and conductors have completed sensitization training by NTSA. 43 out of the 73 vehicles that were up for inspection have passed,” he says.
In it, the NTSA explains that the December 12th road accident in Kiongowani area which led to the death of two drivers,Moses Wanjala and Japhred Lucas, as well as five other passengers, as well as injured 62 others.
This is not the first time that a Modern Coast bus has been involved in an accident.
The area has been singled out as a blackspot for having at least 10 accidents in the November to December period.
According to Section 34 of the NTSA Act, the Authority can suspend a license holder if they fail to comply with the laws.
Other than the example of the Modern Coast Express, the director of NTSA also suspended bus hailing apps, Little and Swvl, three months ago, for operating without passenger service vehicles (PSV’s) licenses, as well as being unregistered.
In October, NTSA further suspended 11 matatu under a Savings and Credit Co-operative Society (Saccos) for failing to operate without a PSV license.
