National Youth Service / Nyayo Bus Service

National Youth Service buses

The National Youth Service is an organisation created just after independence. It is administered by the office of the president and provides some paramilitary training to young job trainees, recruiting some 2,500 annually. The NYS is involved in infrastructure and community projects, among others. In 1980 the NYS received 200 DAF trucks as development aid from the Netherlands. Ten of those were buses on DAF FA2100 truck chassis with BOVA bodywork to the then current "Benelux" design, completely built in the Netherlands. In 1981 or 1982 four more were added on the same chassis and also built up by BOVA but to a very squarish design. Two coaches on the new DAF TB2105 chassis with locally built bodywork, probably by Suleman, were added in 1985/1986. If and how many more buses the NYS had at the time is not known. Later more buses for transport of NYS-members must have been recieved, some maybe returned from the public bus services network, some directly. Seen was one DAF TB2105, probably with a Harnam Sing Bansal body, registered around 1993 with a goverment registration. All NYS buses had GK (Government of Keny) registrations.

In 1986 the relations between the Kenya Bus Services, which ran urban services in Nairobi and Mombassa and which was still UK-owned, reached a new low. President Moi intervened and created his own bus service using NYS buses and personnel. It was officially launched in October 1986 launched “with 6 DAF buses”. In spite of some doubts about the ability to create a larger company, it turned out that the President had grand plans, and within two years he managed to set up a company with 89 buses. The buses belonged to and were operated by the National Youth Service. By using NYS personnel, the NYS bus service had a big advantage over KBS: free personnel. In addition, the use of 5 personnel per bus (a driver, 2 conductors and a guard at every door) meant that passenger control could be more efficient. By only running rush hour services a full load was assured and NYS thus quickly announced making a profit. Routes were basically the same as KBS and there was direct competition between the companies. Buses seen in service during this period included six of the DAF FA2100 -BOVA buses and two DAF TB2105 -Suleman coaches (only for a short while), which were already with NYS. New buses added in 1987/1988 were at least nine Leyland Clydesdale CD45 with bodywork by Harman Sing Bansal, Choda Fabricators and one other body builder (possibly Suleman), at least 13 DAF TB2105 with Choda Fabricators bodywork in two batches and at least eight Isuzu, two of which had Choda Enterprises bodywork and six with Labh Sing Harnam Sing bodywork. Of course, this number represents less than half the fleet of 89 buses. The last addition were the first Italian IVECO buses which were delivered in 1988 with GK-plates but soon recieved the semi-government company plates.

The Nyayo Bus Company

Evidently, it would be impossible for NYS to run more than a few dozen buses. Running a public transport company requires special skills and dedicated personnel. It was thus decided in 1988, by law, to transform the successful NYS Bus Service into a parastatal company, called the Nyayo Bus Company. The NBC was to extend its services further and grow to become as large as KBS. In just a few years time the company acquired over 300 buses: about 100 IVECO, 100 DAF and 100 Volvo. All were donated or paid for by loans from the governments of Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium! It was announced that urban services had also been establised in Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kisumu, Meru and Kisii, though it is very unlikely that these services had ever more than a handful of buses. A newspaper article mentioned two buses in Kisii and four in Mombasa! In Nairobi, however a full all day operating network developed. Around 1992 or 1993 the company even introduced some coach services to other major towns.

However, as quickly as it developed, as quickly did the company dissappear. By mid 1994,services in Nairobi were sporadic and only a few dozen buses were left. In February 1995 just a few buses were seen in service, and during a visit in 1997 none were seen at all. I was told the company had quietly dissappeared somewhere in 1995 and buses were still for sale though they were in such a state that nobody wanted them.

In 1988 services were started using the Leyland, DAF and Isuzu buses aquired new by the NYS. Those were reregistred with KZG- plates but few were seen in service and they may have been transfered to provincial towns. New at the inauguration were the IVECO-FIAT 135 buses donated by the Italian government. In total 30 were seen in service but is seems 40 existed. The second batch, also built in 1988, consisted of another 50 IVECO 135 but this time with Hungarian Ikarus bodywork to that company's standard 200-series design. The Belgian and Dutch governments were then requested to provide more buses and over 100 DAF TB and over 100 Volvo B7F were finally present in the fleet, though the DAFs probably included the first batches still delivered under NYS rule. The new DAF had bodywork by Labh Sing Harnam Sing and Choda Fabricators, except for two which had imported Jonckheere Pacific bodywork. The Volvo all had locally built bodywork by Labh Sing Harnam Sing, Choda Fabricators and Harnam Sing Bansal. The last addition were at least three intercity coaches, which were Volvo B7F with Labh Sing Harnam Sing bodywork and entered service in 1991 or 1992.