‘There is no problem with matatus on the Expressway, but…’: Caroline Mutoko speaks out

Celebrated media personality Caroline Mutoko has fired back at critics over her remarks on matatus using the Nairobi Expressway that have since elicited mixed reactions and enraged Kenyans on Twitter (KOT).

In a video message, the renowned social influencer came out guns blazing as she told off netizens for intimating that her sentiments were aimed at downplaying Public Service Vehicles (PSV) users and creating a social class division between the rich and the poor.

Mutoko explained that she was referring to the fact that PSVs are prone to overspeeding on the roads, hence allowing them into the Expressway could expose passengers and other road users to dangers.

“I want to talk about the myopia of anybody thinking that my concern about PSVs being on the Expressway is about PSVs. It is about the fact that as a people we are indisciplined, as Nairobians we are grossly indisciplined, PSVs in Nairobi are massively indisciplined. We are courting trouble…” she said.

“There is absolutely no problem with PSVs being in the Expressway on condition that their speed governors are back on. It should be a prerequisite for PSVs to have speed governor on the expressway.”

The radio legend went on to spell out that Kenyans, in general, have the tendency of driving carelessly, a culture she noted threatens innocent lives if is not curbed.

“You will not get me to back down on one thing, that having PSVs on the Expressway without insisting they have speed governors is courting trouble and this cannot be about the vehicles, this is about the passengers," she said.

"Stop giving nonsense, when I say we are courting trouble, we are, and you know am right. Shame on you for making this about anything but lives. This is about lives and the fact that we are blood-letting on this Expressway. Kabla we wake up and get serious, tutaua wengi.”

In her advice to motorists plying the Expressway, Mutoko said Kenyans have the responsibility to protect lives by adhering to traffic directives such as keeping a required speed limit.

“We cannot be trusted to behave. We have already proved it, I don’t know how many times Mlolongo is going to be built and rebuilt…and in this country and in this city, PSVs, tunangoja siku ile gari itatoka uko juu, iende chini, mark my words,” she warned.