The BRT debate seems to be a never ending one. Nairobians have been lied to by their government many times, and things seem to have stagnated.

Transport cabinet secretary James Macharia had last year promised to have the first buses on the road by March this year. March came and went, and still none has been spotted thus far.

The ill informed pink line on Thika road has already faded a good deal, and it’s unclear how the whole BRT system will operate if it ever will.

However, despite all the lack of information, the CS for transport says that the first batch of buses is already in the country. They are being manufactured in South Africa, after Kenyan companies produced buses that are not ‘brt-worthy’.

“The first batch was 32 buses. What we are now trying to do is fast track the construction of stations and other supporting infrastructure so that as the buses come, we shall have proper infrastructure,” he said.

A picture has now surfaced showing one of this buses in South Africa. The yellow and blue bus comes with NAMATA branding. NaMATA stands for Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, and is the body in charge of the project.

Here’s the bus.

Nairobi BRT bus
Nairobi BRT bus

Photo courtesy of The Star