NAIROBI TRAFFIC GRIDLOCK IS HURTING THE LONG TERM ECONOMIC DEVELOPLMENT

Nairobi is the national capital with population, depending on the time of day between 3.5 to 4.5 million. It is the national focus point and the seat of the Executive Branch of Government Parliament and Judiciary that serves as headquarters of many corporates in the country. Above all Nairobi enjoys a special distinction as a host of the fourth United Nations centre besides New York, Geneva and Vienna. It is therefore a global and significant outpost with the largest diplomatic community in Africa.

Despite its international status, with an enviable and attractive climate, our infrastructure, i.e. roads, sewage system, water, street lighting need greater attention to give it status it deserves. Besides, it is the East African financial services leader, with plans underway to create Nairobi International Financial Centre (NIFC) along lines of London, New York, Dubai, Hong Kong. It houses the World Bank and IMF, as the regional headquarters for East and Central Africa.

Given the above realities, if one takes a bird’s eye view of Nairobi in a helicopter ride between 6.30am to 9.30am and between 3.30pm to 7.00pm the flow of cars is back to back and virtually all the arteries in the city are clogged as cars move at a snail’s speed. This state of affairs is extremely untenable and challenges our critical thinking on what is being done by planning and implementation authorities. One basic example is Kenyatta Avenue. From Uhuru highway to Tom Mboya Street, a distance of hardly 1km long we have 6 traffic lights. They distract free flow and serve little purpose. If we blocked entry to Kenyatta Avenue from both Wabera and Muindi Mbingu streets these traffic lights would be unnecessary. Besides, Kenyatta Avenue needs to be expanded by removing the so-called flowers and trees. However this does not seem to attract sensitivity from Nairobi City County. The whole of CBD requires fresh standard paving and re-organization by not allowing parking within the CBD to facilitate free flow of people.

Kenya must de-emphasize conventional approach for creative thinking. An example is Mbagathi road coming from Langata to Ngong road, between the hours of 4.30pm to 7.00pm, traffic is very light. On the other hand traffic from Kenyatta National Hospital roundabout at the City Mortuary towards Langata road, traffic is back to back. If we think outside the box, it is possible during those hours we can reverse traffic flow from Langata by converting to single lane and the other lane allow traffic from Ngong road to Mbagathi road all the way to Langata roundabout with proper traffic police co-ordination this change is very easy to adopt.

The road from Galleria all the way to Ongata Rongai, Kiserian, Ngong town coming back to Karen shopping centre, Dagoretti Corner and Ngong road to Kenyatta National Hospital to Uhuru highway must be dual carriaged without undue delay. We have very heavy traffic during the hours of 5am all the way to 9am and from 3.30 – 8.30 pm daily. In addition, Besides, Galleria to Karen Shopping Centre should be equally dual carriaged. Inevitably the National Government will reason out that we have no money to carry out these infrastructural projects. However commuters are paying high price by unnecessary petrol consumption which we do not produce. If we take into consideration the many hours we spend on the roads, the high costs to the nation through capital flight from purchase of petroleum products, it makes economic sense to borrow money and build these national assets now than doing it later because it will never be cheaper by waiting.

The unintended and major victims of terrible Nairobi traffic are the young school going children who spend between 4 – 6 hours of travel daily. Imagine children coming from Ngong’, Isinya, Rongai, Limuru, Machakos, Kitengela, Kajiado, Kikuyu being caught up in this traffic nightmare and the toll on them through poor examination performance besides poor health associated with exhaustion seating in traffic. This scenario is totally unacceptable for a nation aiming at being globally competitive by 2030. What is pertaining in Nairobi is coincidentally applicable to Mombasa. Our country needs to take long term view of infrastructure development not only in Nairobi and Mombasa, but across the entire country. Further, contractors awarded contracts must be made to work 24 hours. We cannot afford the luxury of waiting unless we want to live under developmental illusion.

Having acknowledged that Nairobi has a serious traffic problem, we can contrast with three cities in China; Guangzou, Shanghai and Beijing which are highly populated and yet the traffic is manageable. Two issues distinguish China and Kenya. A very high degree of discipline is observable not only among the ordinary Chinese but the police have a developmental attitude and hence everybody defers to obedience of law and order. You will hardly see behavior of overlapping associated with our matatu culture in China. The second difference between Kenya and China is impunity. In China, they don’t tolerate impunity no matter what station of life an individual belongs. The contrary is true in Kenya. In China, this cannot be countenanced and hence China today is the global manufacturing and production centre. If Kenya wants to develop fast as a key player within Africa and globally, we must resolve to be a law abiding country disciplined, clean discard impunity to attract inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) tourists etc. In addition we must embrace a sustainable culture of cleanliness as mainstreamed in Singapore, Korea, Germany and Japan. The irony is that none of these countries are more endowed with natural resource than Kenya. However they have developed a culture of hard work, high value for quality education and a great sense of national pride. If Kenyans believe in themselves, nothing is impossible.

Karanja KABAGE

ADVOCATE, HIGH COURT OF KENYA

September 10, 2015