On March 24, the Transport Licensing Appeals Board handed down a decision that should outrage every Kenyan who values safety, accountability, and the rule of law.

By lifting the suspension of Super Metro Sacco’s operating license, the board has not only undermined the National Transport and Safety Authority’s (NTSA) efforts to enforce compliance but also sent a dangerous message: that public safety can be bartered away for convenience and profit.

This ruling is a slap in the face to commuters who rely on these buses daily, to the families who have lost loved ones due to reckless operators, and to a nation that deserves better than a transport system teetering on the edge of chaos.

Let’s be clear about the stakes here. Super Metro’s suspension wasn’t some arbitrary bureaucratic overreach. It was a calculated response to a litany of violations that painted a picture of a company either unwilling or incapable of adhering to basic safety standards.

The NTSA flagged 294 out of 523 buses for issues ranging from expired inspection certificates to malfunctioning speed limiters – devices meant to prevent the kind of high-speed carnage that has claimed countless lives on Kenyan roads.

Over 100 drivers were caught exceeding the 80km per hour limit, and 64 failed a retest so miserably that their licences were revoked. Add to that allegations of labour law breaches and a passenger’s death reportedly linked to a fare dispute, and you have a company that’s not just flirting with disaster – it’s inviting it with open arms.

Yet, the board, in its infinite wisdom, saw fit to grant Super Metro a reprieve. An interim order, they called it, allowing the buses back on the roads pending a full hearing on March 27. The justification? Super Metro’s claim that the suspension was “arbitrary” and threatened livelihoods.

It’s a flimsy excuse dressed up as compassion, and it doesn’t hold water. Since when does the potential for economic disruption trump the immediate risk to human lives? If we’re going to start bending rules for every company that cries foul about its bottom line, then why bother having regulations at all?

Let’s just hand out licences like candy and pray the death toll doesn’t climb too high.

This decision reeks of cowardice and compromise. The board had a chance to stand firm, to back the NTSA’s crackdown on a sector notorious for cutting corners, and instead, it blinked.

It’s not as if Super Metro was blindsided by these requirements. The NTSA laid out clear conditions for lifting the suspension: fix the flagged vehicles, retrain the drivers, and comply with labour laws. These aren’t unreasonable demands – they’re the bare minimum for a company entrusted with thousands of lives daily. Yet, Super Metro’s response was to run to the transport board, whining about unfair treatment, while its buses reportedly kept plying the roads in defiance of the ban. If that’s not contempt for authority, what is? The timing of this ruling couldn’t be worse. Kenya’s roads are already a battleground, with over 4,000 deaths annually attributed to accidents – many involving public service vehicles like Super Metro’s.

Just weeks ago, the nation was reeling from yet another tragedy, a passenger allegedly thrown from a moving bus over a fare dispute. The public outcry was deafening, and for once, it seemed the NTSA was listening.

The suspension was a rare flex of muscle, a signal that impunity might finally face consequences. Now, that signal has been drowned out by the board’s spineless retreat, leaving commuters to roll the dice every time they board a Super Metro bus.

And let’s not kid ourselves about who pays the price here. It’s not the executives at Super Metro, insulated by their profits and legal manoeuvres. It’s the ordinary Kenyan – the mother heading to work, the student rushing to school, the vendor hauling goods to market. They’re the ones packed into these metal death traps, praying the driver’s sober, the brakes work, and the speedometer doesn’t climb into the red.

The board’s ruling doesn’t protect their livelihoods; it endangers their lives. To suggest otherwise is either naive or deliberately disingenuous.

Super Metro’s defence – that it had addressed the NTSA’s concerns before the suspension – is laughable. If that were true, why were hundreds of buses still failing inspections days after the ban?

Why were drivers still clocking speeds that defy reason? The company’s own statements smack of desperation, not accountability. They’ve leaned hard on the narrative of being a “major employer”, as if that absolves them of responsibility.

The March 27 hearing better reverse this travesty or we’re looking at a green light for chaos.

—  The writer is a Communication Consultant-