{"id":460958,"date":"2011-07-14T14:23:04","date_gmt":"2011-07-14T14:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/07\/14\/kenya-negligence-and-human-error-killing-us\/"},"modified":"2011-07-14T14:23:04","modified_gmt":"2011-07-14T14:23:04","slug":"kenya-negligence-and-human-error-killing-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/14\/kenya-negligence-and-human-error-killing-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya: Negligence And Human Error Killing Us"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nairobi Star<\/a> (Nairobi)<\/p>\n

David Makali<\/p>\n

13 July 2011<\/p>\n

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opinion<\/p>\n

The Highway Code in Kenya is in danger of being forgotten altogether. As a consequence there is much loss of human life, suffering and general misery.<\/p>\n

As the country undertakes unprecedented infrastructure development and new roads are carpeted all over, it will be of great help if some attention is also directed at adherence to the Highway Code.<\/p>\n

While driver errors account for nearly half of the accidents happening on Kenyan roads today, there is also bad workmanship that has precipitated accidents. As you drive around on Kenyan roads, you begin to wonder whether someone should not take responsibility for the actions and omissions that almost automatically cause death.<\/p>\n

Steep bumps erected recklessly at corners that force speeding cars to overturn on impact; sharp bends without barriers, dangerous corners without reflectors and hazard signs, lacking road signs and speed guides. Every since Joseph Kaqmotho was minister for transport, I have always wondered why successive officers in the roads ministry have not appreciated the danger of the badly finished ending of the dual carriage road from Nairobi at the point it terminates (Limuru).<\/p>\n

Unless you are a regular user of that highway from Nakuru you will not notice the intersection at which the dual splits into a one-way. On many occasions I have seen drivers miss the road and tumble back on to the road. In Nairobi city centre, you find many gaping manholes at dangerous locations that can disable even elephants.<\/p>\n

Increasingly now you find example of good road architecture and worksmanship. These include the new Nairobi- Nakuru Highway, the Mombasa Highway, the Narok Bomet superhighway. The contractors of these roads are almost predictably European and Chinese firms, which is a statement of the inability of Kenyans to do a good job. But not everyone agrees.<\/p>\n

I once had a discussion with Ephraim Maina, the proprietor of Kirinyaga Contractors, who castigated Kenyans for lacking faith in their own homegrown companies. He could not see the reason why he was winning major construction work in other countries while Kenyans shunned our indigenous firms for foreign contractors. Maina, deplored the accusations that Kenyan contractors were more interested in paying kickbacks to their benefactors than delivering completed project. Then cowboy contractors ruled the corridors of power with a legacy of dubious projects. Today, apart from small projects, the cowboys have been run out of town by foreign firms that now grab all the big projects. Kenyan entepreneurs have themselves to blame for the loss of business.<\/p>\n

That is not to say corruption has ended in the construction sector. Or that the era or shoddy construction is behind us altogether. You just need to look at the Sikata -Kimilili road in Bungoma or the Limuru-Mai Mahiu road to appreciate the level of workmanship that still attends our road construction. Even the main roads being fixed countrywide by the multinationals are peeling off into gullies before the entire stretch is completed. The jury is not yet out on the Chinese contractors either. We are yet to see a road that will last 30 years.<\/p>\n

The panacea to these ills is a more strict adherence to road construction standards and new regulations on road use to preserve our infrastructure and prevent perennial resource wastage. Why should heavy commercial vehicles use roads which are designed for light weight cars?<\/p>\n

It will probably take another ten years of intense construction and investment at the current pace to upgrade our entire national road network to where it should be. Such key artery roads as Kisii-Kamagambo with its sharp bumps or the narrow lanes like Langata – Kiserian used by thousands are too hectic for inexperienced drivers. They are deadly.<\/p>\n

While many accidents in Kenya are caused by defective vehicles, poor driving, and the state of our roads, much is also attributable to non compliance with the Highway Code.<\/p>\n

On highways across the country, you will drive into a stationary truck or a defective vehicle abandoned smug in the middle of the road. Many accidents occur when vehicles are driven straight into these abandoned vehicles or in attempts to avoid them. These deaths can be avoided if citizens took some basic precautions and the police enforced the code. It is the duty of the user of a stalled car to plant the triangle ten meters to alert oncoming road users of that blockade. But many car owners in Kenya don’t carry such basic equipments in their cars and no one cares really.<\/p>\n

While in Tanzania, the Police inspect your car for a fire extinguisher, the road accident sign and other essentials to road use, in Kenya all that a traffic policeman looks at is whether the certificate of insurance on your car is still valid. How does a valid insurance certificate prevent a road accident or determine the roadworthiness of a car? Consider that many cars are issued with insurance certificates automatically even without inspection or assessment of their mechanical condition.<\/p>\n

The ball is clearly in the hands of the law enforcement agencies. The Kenya Anti- corruption commission can wipe out corruption within the traffic police if they want by undertaking covert operations. It does not take genius. Just do it.<\/p>\n

Above all it is the duty of the Police to save us from our own negligence and propensity to kill each other. Many months ago, to great relief, the police announced that the traffic department had ordered powerful motorbikes for its troopers to patrol the highways. They would by now have weeded out bad driving and brought about better respect for the Highway Code. It has worked in the United States and Europe and it would tremendously reduce traffic offences, accidents, open up jams and instill civility on the highways. May be this is a matter of resources or just poor organization. But everything considered, there is a lot of unnecessary death and waste on our highways that must be curbed.<\/p>\n

David Makali is the director of the Media Institute in Nairobi. He has been a journalist (reporter, editor, trainer, publisher, researcher, media critic and press freedom activist) for over 20 years. A graduate of political science (Moi University, Kenya) Makali studied journalism at the University of Nairobi and the prestigious Columbia University School of Journalism, where he was the recipient of a Jack R Howard Fellowship for International Journalists<\/em><\/p>\n

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Nairobi Star (Nairobi) David Makali 13 July 2011 opinion The Highway Code in Kenya is in danger of being forgotten altogether. As a consequence there is much loss of human life, suffering and general misery. 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