The ugly side of beautiful city road

Kenya: Kenya's number one killer road is a seductive, smooth-skinned beauty, complete with an irresistible food and alcoholic drinks bazaar on its left shoulder as you drive from Nairobi.

Transport Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau says the new eight-lane two-kilometre stretch of Airport North Road connecting Outering Road to Mombasa Road recorded the highest number of traffic fatalities last year.

Its chin touching on the left side of Mombasa road as you drive to Nairobi carries what is developing into a well-groomed beard characterised by well-laid flower gardens.

The bosom on the opposite side is also developing into what might become a sight to behold, with well-manicured gardens designed to be the future picnic magnet for romantics.

Looking at the new beauty laid on a flat piece of land, motoring enthusiasts cannot escape a wild desire to just let go especially along the centre four fast lanes that are flanked by a similar number of slow parking lanes on the edges.

The road covers about 80 metres across and is a nightmare for thousands of pedestrians who cross over to work at industries in the area and back again to their homes in the densely populated Embakasi estate.

In the morning, Airport North Road cuts off thousands of Embakasi residents from their jobs and come evening, its shiny and smooth back lies like a man-eating serpent between them and their homes on the other side.

"The road is like a great wall that separates where we live and where we earn our bread; and we can't do without both," says David Shamalla, a watchman at a fabrications factory and a resident of Mukuru kwa Njenga slums.

The left parking lane of Airport North Road as you drive from Nairobi borders Embakasi estate.

"Crossing all these lanes is not an easy feat, especially for children, women and the aged, not only because of speeding traffic but also the wide and deep open water gutters running in between the lanes," says Shamalla.

MOTORCYCLE CRASHES

Patrons at Airport View Hotel by the roadside told us of a case where a woman and her two children were marooned in the middle of the road for almost two hours under a heavy downpour.

The family, we are told, was only rescued after the patrons called for a St John's Ambulance. While we could not verify this independently, it is not difficult to imagine it happening on the wide high-speed boulevard.

While the road builder was thoughtful enough to put up pedestrian side-walks, especially alongside the left flank, this has turned into a nightmare for the public. In some places, it has been overtaken by hawkers, forcing pedestrians to walk on the roads. In other places, the side-walk serves as a car park for drivers enjoying a bite or drinks at the roast-meat and drinking joints that stretch almost into the roads. "In the evening and weekends, we have to fight for space with drunk drivers from these dens, unruly matatus and bodabodas competing for customers. Hand carts also use the sidewalks,” says a pedestrian.

For motorcyclists to cross from one end of the road to the other, they would have to cycle for long distances, so they cut all manner of corners and break all traffic regulations, u-turning back and forth. Although the stretch was completed last year, Kamau says 15 lives were lost on this street alone and mostly through motorcycle accidents. He says the number of accidents were disproportionate to its short length.

The dangers are more apparent especially during the evening rush hour as matatus and even private vehicles opt to drop passengers along the fast lanes to avoid traffic jams on the outer lanes. It is most uncomfortable because the pedestrians who are dropped far from their preferred destinations have to jump across the open water gutters and sometimes onto oncoming traffic. It gets even worse if it's raining because those who can't jump the over four-feet-wide gutters may have to wade into the dirty water.

But it is not all doom and gloom for everyone. When it rains, some innovative young men use pieces of wood to make temporally bridges across the gutters for those who can't jump across, but for a fee.

Lucy Musau, who lives at Utawala estate says driving on this road is the most thrilling part of her day. "What a thrill especially if you hit the stretch when a jet from the airport is zooming overhead. I hug the controls, hit the boards and feel my heart fly out to the enviable pilots above,” says Musau.

The only misgiving is that the street is too short and the thrill short-lived. “Next time she wants a thrill, she'd better remember that speed kills, especially on Airport North Road,” says Kamau.