Highway gridlock in Kenya hurting fragile economy

A traffic snarl up stretching nearly 60km between Samburu and Maungu in Kwale that lasted nearly 24 hours on Tuesday made the Mombasa-Nairobi highway a living hell for hundreds of stranded motorists. Many spent the night in the cold, possibly without a meal.

The jam was apparently caused by unfinished work on a road diversion in Taru and a heavy downpour that rendered the muddy stretch impassable. Though the explanation by the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) seems plausible enough, there is a feeling that too little was done too late to get the flow of traffic back to normal.