{"id":8564,"date":"2024-12-28T23:39:07","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T20:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/?p=8564"},"modified":"2024-12-28T23:39:07","modified_gmt":"2024-12-28T20:39:07","slug":"doublem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/doublem\/","title":{"rendered":"The rise and fall of Double M Bus company joins the long list of failed transport firms"},"content":{"rendered":"

The company which owned the famed \u2018Double M\u2019 buses, is being auctioned.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, Philips International Auctioneers advertised for the auction the property owned by the company to recover a bank loan of an undisclosed amount. . The property sits on 1.767 acre-land\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Express Connections owns the Double M fleet of buses that operate within Nairobi and its environs \u2013 managed by Mary Wangari-Mwangi.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the structures erected on the land include two office blocks, a generator, a cafeteria building, a go-down used as a garage, an ablution block and a sentry. There is also a petrol station, Ola Energy Petrol Station on the land situated along Jogoo Road.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The company, once hailed for being a trailblazer for safe and decent public transport, rising above the prevalent indiscipline of the \u2018Manyanga\u2019 culture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Double M was founded by Ms Wangari\u2019s husband, John Mugo Mwangi. Mr Mwangi died in December 2011.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mary Wangari has vied twice for the Embakasi East parliamentary seat and lost. It is reported that she will be making a third stab next year in a bid to wrestle the seat from the current MP Babu Owino.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The precursor of what came to be known as\u00a0Michuki Rules\u00a0was the business that Ms Mwangi and her husband had established. \u201cThe \u201cMichuki Rules\u201d probably should have been called the \u201cMwangi Rules,\u201d read a 2013 study by Meghan Elizabeth Ference of Washington University in St Louis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Double M\u2019s \u201cExpress Connection\u201d was once, one the biggest bus firms, and unlike others that are operated as a franchise through Saccos, it is a family business.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The couple built their fleet of over 150 matatus, one vehicle at a time by 2010. They started their firm in 1979, building vehicles from the wheelbase to the paint jobs for other matatu operators.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But they would soon enter into the passenger transport business, seven years later.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unlike its competitors, Express Connections which started its operation on the Buru Buru route played no music, issued tickets for each passenger and only allowed seated passengers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The staff were trained on their specific roles and were required to wear a uniform of blue shirts, black ties and black sweater vests for conductors and purple shirts for drivers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They also hired many women and young people who had never worked in the sector before and gave their employees a salary that they could count on daily so that they were less tempted to steal and would instead budget their money.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The company which owned the famed \u2018Double M\u2019 buses, is being auctioned. Recently, Philips International Auctioneers advertised for the auction the property owned by the company to recover a bank loan of an undisclosed amount. . The property sits on 1.767 acre-land\u00a0 Express Connections owns the Double M fleet of buses that operate within Nairobi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,1905],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-news"],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sej6K6-doublem","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-content\/uploads\/double-M-magaripoa.jpg?fit=1224%2C688&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}