Like other big cities, Khon Kaen is facing a public transport problem. The increased dependence on private vehicles worsened the city's traffic, while its main transit terminal became harder to access following a move to the city's outskirts. Now, a pilot project is underway to research and design a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system aimed at modernizing the city’s transit network.

Khon Kaen has a problem shared by other large cities in Thailand: worsening traffic jams caused by increased dependence on private vehicles. A recent decision to move the city’s main transit terminal to the outskirts of town just made things worse as people without private transport can no longer easily access it.

People without a home and people without a place of shelter in Khon Kaen – many have to live lives in the public park surrounding Bueng Kaen Nakhon reservoir. Besides mutual encouragement among the homeless to resolve to fight for a life, Ban Home Saen Suk (Khon Kaen Homeless Commune) is a shelter that helps revive the potential of its members to get established to the point that they don’t have to go back to being homeless.

In Khon Kaen's Nam Phong district, a natural marsh covering 600 rai of land which once served as a fishing area and water source for agriculture became a holding pond for factory wastewater discharge. It became so polluted between 1992 - 1998 that fish stocks began dying. Factories in the area have been repeatedly ordered to close, but they later reopened and the marsh remains polluted.

<p>On his fifth day back as Prime Minister after a 37-day hiatus, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha conducted a visit to Khon Kaen and Ubon Ratchathani, where expressions of dissent as minor as raising three-finger salute drew a fierce response from his security detail.</p>

<p>The Khon Kaen Municipal Court has ruled that three students are guilty of violating the Flag Act for flying a &ldquo;monarchy reform&rdquo; flag in front of the former Khon Kaen University dean&rsquo;s office building.</p>

<p>The Khon Kaen Provincial Court began its trial of 3 Khon Kaen University students for desecrating the national flag.&nbsp; The students were charged after they replaced a national flag with a &lsquo;monarchy reform&rsquo; banner on a flag pole during a protest at Khon Kaen University in February 2021.</p>

<p>Two students from Khon Kaen University were arrested on Friday morning (17 September), after the police raided their house and charged them with arson in relation to the burning of the King&rsquo;s portrait on 13 September 2021.</p>

<p>The Isaan Record, an online media organization based in Khon Kaen Province, is under surveillance by police officers. This is not the first time, and it occurs after they report on monarchy reform and anti-dictatorship activities which other media find distasteful.</p>

<p>The activist group &ldquo;Khon Kaen&rsquo;s Had Enough&rdquo; (ขอนแก่นพอกันที) published a letter from the Superintendent of Mueang Khon Kaen Police Station to the Khon Kaen city mayor stating that they received a complaint about recent protests in the city from a citizen who also petitioned to have the local Democracy Monument moved elsewhere.</p>

<p>The wave of youth-led protests continued with four more protests on Thursday (23 July) in Pattani, Ayutthaya, Pathum Thani and Khon Kaen, showing support for other protestors across the country.</p>

<p>Tiwagorn Withiton, a Facebook user who posted an image of him wearing a shirt printed with &ldquo;I lost faith in the monarchy&rdquo;, was released from a psychiatric hospital after being detained under questionable circumstances on 9 July. Meanwhile, people are being pressured by security authorities for talking and posting about it.</p>