by Dann Okoth

Screeching brakes, a bang, wails and sirens...Welcome to Mombasa Road, the ultra-modern super highway turned death road.

It is early in the morning and a crowd gathers at the City Cabanas junction on Mombasa Road to view the body of a middle-aged man who has been knocked down by a speeding public transport vehicle.

The man had just alighted from another matatu and was crossing the road when the vehicle hit and killed him on the spot right in front of traffic police officers.

A few hours later and yards from the morning accident spot, a speeding truck hits a mini-van from behind, flinging it into the air. By the time the van lands on the ground seven people are dead and several others injured.

About three kilometres away at the Belle Vue Cinema junction, a truck and saloon car ‘kiss’ each other as both drivers attempt to change lanes. The saloon is sent careening into a ditch. A shaken young man emerges from the wreckage still unable to come to terms with his ordeal. He is lucky to be alive.

The deadly crashes are interspersed by several minor accidents throughout the day on the highway.

A number of dead bodies covered in soiled blankets, glass, twisted metal and frayed tyre remains seem to litter every inch of the highway — a testament to the mounting carnage.

Accidents on Mombasa Road have left in their wake a trail of death, destruction and loss for families and the na tion. The latest such big loss is the death of NIC Capital Managing Director Kairu Ngure, who died in an accident on the road in July.

"You live with this paranoia that something freaky is about to happen while driving on the road. We all seem to be in such a hurry," says Mr Dan Ndung’u, a regular user of the road.

But Mombasa Road is no stranger to such horrific accidents, a development that has now given the road the dubious distinction of being the Highway of Death.

The road, which has been rehabilitated to world standards from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport turn off to Museum Hill roundabout has experienced increased accidents since last year.

"We are experiencing a high rate of road accidents on Mombasa Road, especially involving pedestrians, since the re-carpeting of the highway. It seems motorists have been speeding," Deputy Nairobi Area Traffic Commandant Leonard Katana told journalists at the scene of an accident on the road in September.

"Maybe this is the most dangerous road in Kenya at the moment. One encounters dead bodies on the road almost daily," laments Ms Elizabeth Mwangi, The Standard Group principal librarian.

She goes on: "What shocks me is that there seem to be no police officers on the stretch between Nyayo Stadium and City Cabanas affording motorists a field day to break traffic rules."

To find out what exactly happens on Mombasa Road, The Standard set on a daylong mission to unearth the monster that stalks the road and we were not disappointed.

Patching on top of a building opposite General Motors we could immediately tell traffic on Mombasa Road is a disaster waiting to happen.

Matatus make zig-zag movements as they strive to pick up or drop off passengers. Almost all the motorists do not seem to obey the rules of the highway as they shift from the fast lane to the outer lanes with utter disregard of the Highway Code.

"These matatus are a nuisance. I can promise you I would not attempt to brake if one crosses my lane," says an angry Jamal Musa, a long-distance truck driver, who we caught up with near City Cabanas.

He says his truck, carrying more than 50 tonnes of goods would not brake immediately if he was cruising at 80km/h.

"This monster would not stop at such a speed. It would simply chew all the brake and move on. In such a case, I would rather hit the vehicles in front than risk swerving and overturning, maybe taking down ten other vehicles with me," Mr Musa explains.

But at such a speed the trailer would send any vehicle less than seven tonnes flying into the air with tragic consequences for the occupants.

Privately owned vehicles are not left behind as they cruise on the highway at between 160km/h and 180km/h with most drivers changing lanes at will.

railing ripped off

Signs of our indiscipline on the road have started showing on the newly expanded bridge near General Motors, where one side of the railing has been ripped off.

It is not clear why the contractor erected a huge horizontal slab on the bridge, but experts suspect it was to narrow the lane next to the bridge railings to prevent big trucks from ramming it.

As it were, though, the trucks have crushed the slab almost to smithereens, maybe explaining why part of the bridge railing is gone.

For Mr Peter Mutua, a pharmacist, using the road is an option only at the weekends and late at night.

"The road is not so busy during weekends, especially Sunday, and late at night. But the road is still dangerous because we have apparently not learnt to use such a highway," he says.