Flirting with death on our roads

 

There is a saying that our teachers in primary school liked repeating: “You can take a man out of the village but you can’t take the village out of him. This comes to mind every time I am on our roads, but with even more significance and impact.

In December 2016, some 33 Kenyans were literally vapourised (killed) on the Kinungi descent towards Naivasha after a truck transporting unspecified chemicals lost control and burst into flames. Several others died in hospital later.

They died in their cars at nightfall as they moved slowly because of a small jam created by the unmarked bumps erected after villagers’ demos against accidents. I drove on that road recently and saw the spot on the tarmac scarred by the inferno. Really, nothing has changed except that the bumps have been painted with white non-luminous paint.

In fact, the bumps now serve the purpose of slowing vehicles for the fish vendors who have become a regular feature of this town. From the main turn off to Naivasha right to the climb up the Kinungi stretch, there are so many bumps that I lost count – on the side of which fresh fish is being hawked.

But a new petrol station has come up next to the spot where innocent Kenyans burnt to death. We shall use this petrol station, the bumps and the many roadside dukas and houses that have come up next to the road as a microcosm of Kenya for indeed, this is replicated wherever a road comes up in Kenya.

Nakuru, Kisumu and Eldoret are some of the towns where national and even regional highways cut through.

Nairobi was, until the coming of bypasses under the Kibaki administration, suffering the same unnecessary congestion. But again, if you use the Southern Bypass that cuts into the Thika Superhighway, you will see the same thing replicated - roadside petrol stations, kiosks, bars and butcheries, hawkers and undesignated matatu stops that worsen the situation.

The constructions on the roadside means every few metres there will either be a vehicle turn-off or pedestrian crossing. That means higher chances of accidents and then, in response, more and more bumps.

The cycle continues as if the engineering and urban planning our experts studied wasn’t meant to be applied outside the classroom! Or worse, the civic authorities and county administrators that manage our planning don’t care!

The point we are making is that we have turned our roads into killer traps and our vehicles literal flying coffins; the moment you get in and join any of our roads, you became a potential killer or casualty.

Yet the priority for most traffic police force members appears to me to be more about harassing motorists and extorting bribes from them more than assisting them, by focusing more attention on the silly speed limits that are in force today.

On the same steep Kinungi descent, some of us have been caught several times for breaking the speed limit. Now wait... the speed limit is 50km per hour. Even a coasting car can attain this in three minutes.

Driving to work every day, it amazes me that on the Taj Mall descent on the Southern Bypass traffic police report to work earlier than most workers in Nairobi to ‘catch’ motorists who have overshot the 50km limit. And they are plenty because it is 'mteremko' (downhill)!

Yet the reason why people rush is because they have either been held up in a jam or are aware there is one ahead and have to do what they can to beat time. And by the way, how do you spend billions building roads as a strategy to support economic growth and then allow some bureaucrats and the police to limit the speed to 50km?

It is not that I do not sympathise with the 'mama mboga' and hawkers or even the roadside business people, but we cannot boast of growth and dazzling infrastructure when we are choking them with all manner of contraptions at the same time. 

In Githurai and Kangemi, we do not even have the fibre to safeguard the poor men and women who roll out gunny bags in the morning to sell their wares on the roundabouts. Occasionally, a drunk or reckless driver loses control and runs over them, and even before their burial, the 'inama' (bend down) boutiques for 'mitumba' (second-hand clothes) and vegetables are back in business.

Some of the petrol stations are makeshift and sandwiched between congested rental houses and businesses. The tankers that transport the fuel are sub-standard; they have only one hull or layer around the tank.

Safety comes second to maximising profits through circumventing the rules. Now I have not heard any presidential candidate, or those fighting for any of the other elective posts, declare they will confront this monster that is killing us every day.

That they will transform Kenya into a modern village where the road remains just that, not an artery of corruption and unnecessary stoppages and frustration! Instead of enforcing long-term measures that ensure the safety of road users, we rush to choke the roads with bumps.

In short, I will vote for the presidential, governor and county assembly candidate who will target the finer details like this one on roads.

The other issues they mention like fighting corruption or bringing water, hospitals, schools and electricity are too obvious, and they don’t mean them anyway - just the way they promise to fight tribalism then immediately break their word once they take up office.

I dedicate this column to the candidates for the Nairobi governor's seat, including the formal and informal pharmacists!