Long-distance bus service provider Easy Coach now says it will allow for the transportation of fish products on its fleet after a backlash from a section of its clients.
A public onslaught against the Public Service Vehicle (PSV) operator intensified on Tuesday after fiery lawyer Miguna Miguna termed the move as tantamount to ethnic profiling.
“The suspension has been lifted and you can now carry your fried, dried, smoked, salted mbuta, ngege, kamongo, omena,” Easy Coach in a brief public statement.
Easy Coach however said travelers must pack such products appropriately.
In an earlier statement, Easy Coach had banned the transportation of any fish products citing concerns raised by some of its customers.
The complainants, Easy Coash said, decried the discomfort caused by poorly packed fish and fish products.
“Following complaints raised by some of our clients on poorly packaged fish/fish products contaminating their accompanied language, temporarily suspend the carrying of fish /fish products as accompanied language in our buses,” the statement in part.
‘Ethnic profiling’
The ban prompted a fierce response by Miguna who said the bus company should have similarly banned products associated with other ethnic groups.
“Easy Coach should and could have announced that it has banned the transportation of all rotten products in their buses – whether meat, fish, milk, githeri, whatever,” Miguna tweeted.
“The target should be foul smell. Not a specific product. After all, rotten meat and milk smell as bad as rotten fish,” he said.
Miguna vowed to resist any attempts to target communities “using code words and ethnocentric and discriminatory mechanisms”.
