A vote against driving rules

By Tony Ngare

There have been many debates about the contentious issues in our proposed Draft Constitution. While some argue and urge others over this or that, what would you vote to remove on our highways? As for me, there are few practices in the Kenyan motoring culture that we could definitely do without.

Keeping left:

Why would we maintain that vehicles should always drive on the left when we know that is not always the case? Any motorist who has found himself or herself in the middle of a maddening three-kilometre long jams will attest that they have watched with horror as multiple lines build up on either side of the car — all headed in the same direction.

If we can’t agree on which side of the road to drive, for goodness sake, why don’t we just adopt an ‘amber mode’ whereby you drive on whichever side of the road that favours you?

Road signs

A lot of money has been used to put up road signs but motorists, and even pedestrians, don’t seem to care about them. How many times have you seen motorists jumping lights right in front of traffic cops or cruising in a manner that would humble the reigning rally champion in an area designated for not more than 50 kilometres per hour?

The other day I was visiting a patient at a Nairobi hospital and I could not believe my eyes — and my ears too — as a fellow at the main entrance to the hospital kept hooting. That is how insensitive some people are.

Police roadblocks

The Police road tolls . . . oops I meant blocks are nothing but one big lie. What is the use of a roadblock that exists only to harass pickups, lorries and public service vehicles?

Okay, granted there are few law enforcement officers who are doing a diligent job. Many commuters in major towns in Kenya have their heroes as far as traffic cops are concerned.

But these officers are few and far between. Before you get a Kenyan who will tell you an amazing story about an honest traffic cop, you will have found ten others with not too good stories.

The other night I was driving home but a certain roadblock that is manned by not less than 10 cops was nowhere to be seen! However, you can be sure that those guys had pitched tent at that very spot between 5pm and probably 9pm, causing a bottleneck.

What just happens to insecurity after midnight to warrant them closing shop? Little wonder then that unsavoury things are said of these roadblocks.

Air pressure pumps

How many times have you pulled into a petrol station, fuelled your car and when you asked the pump attendants to help inflate your tyres the air pressure pump was always spoilt?

How are you supposed to consume their fuel unless you are driving and no car will move on rims alone? I once spent half an hour as I scoured for a service station with a functional tyre pressure device. I covered seven petrol stations in the process and even when I did get to one the attendants were reluctant to give assistance.

Probably we should put it in the proposed constitution, if you want to run a petrol station without breaching any laws, you must have all the devices both for pumping fuel and pressure working safely and efficiently.

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