State told to reorganize city’s transport system

By Macharia Kamau

The business community has asked the Government to address traffic congestion in Nairobi before implementing a long-term plan for a metropolitan transport system.

They want easy flow of traffic in the short-term before futuristic plans advocated by the Nairobi Metropolitan Ministry take off. The plans include building of bypasses to divert traffic from the city centre, and the expansion of major roads leading to the city.

The Nairobi Central Business District Association (NCBDA) said there is urgent need to reorganise the city’s public transport system, including a ban on heavy commercial trucks on key arteries into and out of the city centre, to decongest roads.

According to the NCBDA, Kenya loses Sh30 billion worth of fuel annually, and suffers irreversible environmental damage, as a result of the heavy traffic congestion.

"We know there are plans to solve these problems, but there is need to come up with short-term solutions," said NCBDA chairman Timothy Muriuki. Speaking at the monthly NCBDA luncheon last week, Muriuki said in the short-term, the Government should ban trucks from passing through the city during working hours.

Peak Hours

"Before the bypasses are done, all heavy commercial trucks of more than 10 tonnes can be prohibited from passing through the expanded or greater Nairobi CBD during the peak hours," said Muriuki.

"The trucks should plan their itineraries to only enter the city between 10 pm and 5 am." In 2004, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) funded a research on urban transport and planning in Nairobi.

The subsequent report in 2006, titled the study on Master Plan for Urban in the Nairobi Metropolitan Area, noted that the traffic management in use is a 1970s system that has not been modified over time.

The study recommended an overhaul of the whole system so as to be in line with demand and technology. NCBDA said organised public transport would be among the key drivers of a 24-hour economy, adding that there is need to put tighter controls on the public service vehicle operators. Already, the sector that former Transport Minister John Michuki had tried to streamline with a degree of success, has slowly slid back to disorder and flaunting of laws is the order of the day.