The effect of road infrastructural improvement on performance of the matatu industry in Kenya. A case study of Thika super-highway
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Date
2014-06-26
Authors
Kinuthia, Benjamin
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Abstract
The Thika road is in the northeast of the Nairobi Metropolitan Region. The road extends from Nairobi City Center to Thika Town. The road is one of Kenya‟s flagship projects. The trunk road currently acts as a main cargo route and is an important metropolitan, regional and international transit link and is classified as international trunk road A2.This road originates in Nairobi City Center and extends to Moyale, Ethiopia. This road also acts as a main feeder road for various satellite towns and economic hubs that lie along and near the corridor, including Ruaraka, Kasarani, Kiambu Town, Githurai, Ruiru, Juja and Thika (KARA, 2012). The Kenyan government, Chinese government and the African Development Bank funded this project and is expected to contribute and enhance transport services and urban mobility in the Nairobi Metropolitan Area by reducing general transport costs, improving accessibility to public transportation. In addition the project is expected to promote private sector participation in the management and operation of road infrastructure in Kenya. Thika road accommodates many Matatu routes that have been licensed by the Transport Licensing Board (TLB) among them; route 145, 44, 100, 102, 120, 146, 17 B, 25, 11, 45, 46, and 237.Each route has the main SACCO which, as mandated by the transport licensing board is responsible for managing the affairs of the route. It is one of the busiest roads in East and Central Africa with a day capacity of over 60,000 vehicles, both public service vehicles as well as the private vehicles. There have been increasing concerns on the road safety measures that have been put on this road, given that road signs vandalism is on the rise, poorly managed SACCOs, the number of road accidents have been rising as well. The costs of fuel have been regulated at high levels by the energy regulatory commission (ERC). The number of police crackdowns has been accelerated on this road and police bribery is rampant. The street lights hardly work at night. This study sought to find out whether the improvement of this super-highway will have any significant gain on the Matatu industry‟s performance. Descriptive research design was be used in the methodology. Target population will be Matatu drivers, conductors and Matatu owners who are members of the SACCOs plying the Thika super highway. For convenience of the study the researcher selected four routes namely; Thika (237), Githurai (45), Kasarani (17B) and Kahawa west (44) routes. Simple random sampling methods was be used to draw a sample of 500 respondents from the selected routes. Data was collected mainly using questionnaires that was administered to PSV owners who are members of the four routes main SACCOs, while interview schedules was administered to operators in the selected routes in the super highway. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS statistical package. This aided in generating descriptive statistic such as percentages and measures of central tendency. These was presented using simple descriptive statistics such as tables, graphs, charts, figures and cross tabulations. MS-Excel will be used to generate the descriptive statistics and to establish the relation between the dependent, independent and intervening variables of the study. Qualitative data was organized into themes and categories pertinent to the study, from which the researcher closely evaluated the usefulness of the information in answering the research questions
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Department of Business Administration, 65p. 2013