Meaning of OTC and How the Chaotic Bus Stop Got its Name

OTC is one of the popular bus stops in Nairobi, and opposite it is a 9-storey building that has remained a landmark for the past 10 years.

What is not known to many is that the popular bus stop’s name has a meaning. The abbreviation OTC was derived from a London-based bus company –Oversees Trading Company (OTC) –which was the first company to introduce public buses in Kenya.

The company operated a fleet of 13 buses in Kenya from 1934. The buses plied 12 Nairobi routes which formed the basis of the city’s transport routes still in use today.

The buses also ferried customers across East African cities, including Dar-es-Salaam, Arusha, Kampala, and Jinja, Tanga, and Morogoro through other small towns.

How Popular Towns in Kenya got their names 

While railway was the then-preferred mode of transport for long distances, Kenyans preferred experiencing a bus ride.

The buses staged along the famous Racecourse Road stage, formally known as the OTC stage.OTC buses collapsed in the late 1980s following unfavorable government policies, and other local investors took over the country’s transport sector.

Among them was the former Labour Minister Tom Mboya, who introduced the Tom Mboya Bus Company. In 1986, former President Moi introduced the countrywide Nyayo Bus Service seeking to provide cheap public transport.

The Nyayo buses took a toll on the Kenya Bus Service (KBS), leading to a near collapse. KBS eventually collapsed around the 199Os and sold its fleet to other entities, while the Nyayo buses collapsed in 1995.