My poor car really dislikes me! It must do, as the steering and suspension are coming apart from the constant hammering on what passes for roads in this country. I drive an average of 480 kilometres a week just in Nairobi and it is stressful for both of us.
Even on our ‘super’ highways we are subjected to any amount of torture by speed bump and rumble strip. If not that, then invisible ‘steps’ in the tarmac levels that go for months without any sign of being marked or completed. Why do they do it? 3 kilometres of smooth tarmac suddenly ends with a 10cm step that jars your teeth when you hit it.
Lane1 Garden Est and Ethiopia!!!
Manholes in the middle of a new dual carriageway (the Karen – Langata road) designed to tear tyres from the rims are another horrific obstacle you need to watch for. These things are raised concrete and steel inspection chambers just plonked there to kill you and your passengers. No signage on any road or highway to guide or inform or warn about anything! Why not? And when it is there, it is completely useless like the overhead sign indicating Lane 1 to Garden Estate and Moyale ( some 600km distant) on the Thika highway.
Rumble strips on corners and bends with adverse cambers, obviously approved and placed by roads engineers who seem to be clueless, and very likely do not drive! Motorists have suffered severe injuries at one of these unmarked hazards and the KenHA responded to public outcry by putting up a speed limit sign hidden behind a pretty bush. There is something criminally negligent about the manner in which road safety is or not managed.
What passes for speed bumps are actually mountains!!
Speed Bumps – there is an International standard surely for these damn things. But we’re too proud to adhere to standards. A surly estate agent once told me “we all have our standards”. While he was referring to what I considered crappy home maintenance, he was correct as standards are subjective unless we all subscribe to them.
The weaving highway – Ngong road from “Junction Mall” crossroads all the way to Karen, changes from 3 to 4 to 3 lanes, then could be 5, then 3 because the inside lane ( along the central median) literally ends at a kerb designed to stop a truck! It becomes a U turn lane without any warning.
Now mix in the fact that this highway weaves like a drunken sailor for all 10 kilometres and you have a complete mess that road Engineers appear to be very proud of. The jua kali markets at the Ngong racecourse now use the outside lane for display and parking, the matatus use the 2nd lane as a stage, leaving motorists with one lane and the half lane that ends with the kerb you don’t see until you hit it. There are no designated bus stops and the cops are busy collecting tolls at the traffic light.
Of course we have no paint to define the ‘lanes’ – but this is a disease affecting all our highways and seems intended to add to the chaos we cope with.
Someone marked the lanes at Lenana Forest Centre bend… however, the markers take the corner at angles not curves.
Everyone, especially the PSV Vitz and Demios, drive like they borrowed someones license while others for sure don’t have one. The black Prados and Audis own the roads. Even the bodas won’t tangle with them.
Who designed this? Who is behind it? Why? What did I do to deserve this?
The NTSA plan to have all vehicles inspected for road worthiness. But are the roads actually vehicle worthy? They will do nothing about addressing the hugely obvious issues on our roads, no road markings or signage, illegal bus stages on the outside lane of a 3 lane highway, pedestrians walking on highways, bodas causing mayhem, police stopping vehicles in any lane on highways… the list is just endless. The hours of dashcam footage are breathtakingly terrifying to watch.
If I can see all this then the authorities must be aware of it as well, but they are part of the blue light brigade so are cushioned against it all, ignorant in their bliss.
Now onto potholes… I am ranting only because I need to vent!
Estate roads have been a mess for decades. That won’t change. But the situation on the highways being renovated is criminal. Why are we subjected to diversions and deviations that seem designed to and do destroy saloon cars. Yet our self important authorities hammer motorists with luxury taxes for owning SUVs that are no longer a luxury. If you must navigate these awful excuses for roads then you need an SUV, or one of those very badly driven red tippers the construction companies deploy to bully us.
Sadly, I do not have the resources of the lawyer, who sued KenHA and was awarded the replacement cost of his Bentley’s windscreen. You could buy a car for the cost of that windscreen and add to the mayhem.
So I rant about a situation we know will not change anytime soon, and take another Ponstan to ease my clenched jaw, while replacing the blown suspension and all 4 tyres, because as a responsible motorist safety must come first, and I will keep my wheels roadworthy at all times.
February 16, 2022
Last Updated on November 2, 2024
