Some time next
month, October 10 to be exact, I will be celebrating a birthday. I can
only thank God I have come this far for I could have easily been one of
the statistics of those who perish in road accidents some time in 1980 when I, my wife and some friends narrowly escaped a near fatal accident somewhere near Naivasha.I was driving and keeping my part of bargain on the road. The
army lorry that was coming towards us at full speed left its side of the
road and headed straight at us. There was nowhere I could turn the car.
I simply stopped and waited. The lorry crashed on us, pushed us against
the embankment and left us for dead by the time it also came to a
standstill. We miraculously survived but the car was one big crumbled
mess.
So why did the army lorry driver break his side of the bargain? Because he was dead drunk and should not have been found driving anything on the road in the first place. There are many of his type who cause the death of thousands of Kenyans every year due to drunken driving. But why should this kind of behaviour continue to the detriment of many Kenyans when we have a law that says, “don’t drive when you are under the influence of alcohol?”
First because, at the individual level, some Kenyans are very undisciplined. How many individuals drive off the road or ram their cars on trees or electricity posts around midnight because they are driving from the bar to their homes?
Second, because as traffic controllers and enforcers of discipline on the roads, the police long ago forgot why they earn their salaries and started collecting bribes from undisciplined drivers rather than punishing them, thereby endangering the lives of such fellows.
Talking about personal discipline and greed for money on the roads reminds me of this tuk tuk operator I saw in Kisumu the other day at around eight in the evening. Coming from town and heading towards the airport on the Kisumu-Busia highway there is currently some road construction going on. So the road is usually congested and rather difficult to navigate. The police have therefore put a roadblock just as one leaves town and heads in this confusion towards the airport. One would expect that the presence of the police should help improve some order and discipline for the sake of better traffic flow given the added disadvantage brought by construction.
Forget that baloney about police helping. I saw a tuk tuk carrying a bed, a sofa set and a mattress on top of the God forsaken contraption, with a man, a woman and two children packed inside and the driver trying all his skills to meander through the traffic on this very road to the Kisumu airport. He was obviously helping this family move to a new home and had just successfully passed through the police roadblock.
Now, you tell me who will be blamed when this God forsaken contraption runs into a tanker, veers off the road, bursts into flames and kills all its passengers including the driver? The police, the driver and the man and his wife will, no doubt, be held culpable of this otherwise avoidable tragedy. Let us therefore begin by accepting one thing: our nation is in a total mess when it comes to safety on the roads. We are actually worse than the Nigerians because the Nigerians at least know they have always been in a mess and accept some order is necessary. We hoodwink ourselves that everything is alright except for those others who do not keep traffic rules etc. No. The mess engulfs all of us. Traffic rules must be enforced and obeyed, period. Drunken driving must be abolished and punished, full stop. Bribery of the traffic police must end forthwith, period. The chain of handing up the bribe from the road block, to the base commander, to the OCS, to the OCPD all the way to Vigilance House must be broken completely, period. The highway patrol police must be a trained professional and honest group of people serving Kenyans to save and not lose lives, period.
But you see in Kenya people have become immune to these things we are writing about. One will say, and quite rightly so, that as long as our roads are congested, accidents will continue to occur no matter how well our highway patrol police do their work. True. But I have not said that our roads must continue to be congested.
As long ago as 2003, we had suggested in the Economic Recovery Strategy (ERS) that the road from Mombasa to Busia should be built as a double carriageway. We also suggested a high-speed standard gauge railway be constructed from Mombasa to Busia all the way to Kampala and Kigali. Once this railway is operational we shall reduce the number of tankers on our broads and decongest them. Accidents will be further reduced on a double carriageway. I am glad President Uhuru has secured funds for building the railway finally. As Minister for Planning, I was bitterly opposed to concessioning of the Kenya Railways to the private sector by whatever name at that point in time. I knew the whole thing was not going to work and ten years later we would be worse off. The MD and his Board at that point in time are my witnesses because I pleaded with them over dinner while on a train drive from Mombasa to Nairobi to advise the government against the concessioning initiative. But I think money had exchanged hands somewhere, and nobody was prepared to listen.
Had the standard gauge high-speed railway been initiated then a good number of Kenyans would not have lost their lives by now. But some of us in key policy making positions quite often close our eyes to the public good and deliberately avoid making decisions that can help improve the lives of Kenyans. The railway and the dual carriageway road from Mombasa to Busia have both been victims of this.Railways and roads. These must go together. We have wasted time since independence when it comes to building good and integrated transport infrastructure. Now that we have woken up let us not allow time to waste us. In fact going into debt because of building good and durable infrastructure is very good economics. But let us not use that to cream off monies from the taxpayer due to poorly negotiated or arranged debts. The end will not under such circumstances justify the means.
So why did the army lorry driver break his side of the bargain? Because he was dead drunk and should not have been found driving anything on the road in the first place. There are many of his type who cause the death of thousands of Kenyans every year due to drunken driving. But why should this kind of behaviour continue to the detriment of many Kenyans when we have a law that says, “don’t drive when you are under the influence of alcohol?”
First because, at the individual level, some Kenyans are very undisciplined. How many individuals drive off the road or ram their cars on trees or electricity posts around midnight because they are driving from the bar to their homes?
Second, because as traffic controllers and enforcers of discipline on the roads, the police long ago forgot why they earn their salaries and started collecting bribes from undisciplined drivers rather than punishing them, thereby endangering the lives of such fellows.
Talking about personal discipline and greed for money on the roads reminds me of this tuk tuk operator I saw in Kisumu the other day at around eight in the evening. Coming from town and heading towards the airport on the Kisumu-Busia highway there is currently some road construction going on. So the road is usually congested and rather difficult to navigate. The police have therefore put a roadblock just as one leaves town and heads in this confusion towards the airport. One would expect that the presence of the police should help improve some order and discipline for the sake of better traffic flow given the added disadvantage brought by construction.
Forget that baloney about police helping. I saw a tuk tuk carrying a bed, a sofa set and a mattress on top of the God forsaken contraption, with a man, a woman and two children packed inside and the driver trying all his skills to meander through the traffic on this very road to the Kisumu airport. He was obviously helping this family move to a new home and had just successfully passed through the police roadblock.
Now, you tell me who will be blamed when this God forsaken contraption runs into a tanker, veers off the road, bursts into flames and kills all its passengers including the driver? The police, the driver and the man and his wife will, no doubt, be held culpable of this otherwise avoidable tragedy. Let us therefore begin by accepting one thing: our nation is in a total mess when it comes to safety on the roads. We are actually worse than the Nigerians because the Nigerians at least know they have always been in a mess and accept some order is necessary. We hoodwink ourselves that everything is alright except for those others who do not keep traffic rules etc. No. The mess engulfs all of us. Traffic rules must be enforced and obeyed, period. Drunken driving must be abolished and punished, full stop. Bribery of the traffic police must end forthwith, period. The chain of handing up the bribe from the road block, to the base commander, to the OCS, to the OCPD all the way to Vigilance House must be broken completely, period. The highway patrol police must be a trained professional and honest group of people serving Kenyans to save and not lose lives, period.
But you see in Kenya people have become immune to these things we are writing about. One will say, and quite rightly so, that as long as our roads are congested, accidents will continue to occur no matter how well our highway patrol police do their work. True. But I have not said that our roads must continue to be congested.
As long ago as 2003, we had suggested in the Economic Recovery Strategy (ERS) that the road from Mombasa to Busia should be built as a double carriageway. We also suggested a high-speed standard gauge railway be constructed from Mombasa to Busia all the way to Kampala and Kigali. Once this railway is operational we shall reduce the number of tankers on our broads and decongest them. Accidents will be further reduced on a double carriageway. I am glad President Uhuru has secured funds for building the railway finally. As Minister for Planning, I was bitterly opposed to concessioning of the Kenya Railways to the private sector by whatever name at that point in time. I knew the whole thing was not going to work and ten years later we would be worse off. The MD and his Board at that point in time are my witnesses because I pleaded with them over dinner while on a train drive from Mombasa to Nairobi to advise the government against the concessioning initiative. But I think money had exchanged hands somewhere, and nobody was prepared to listen.
Had the standard gauge high-speed railway been initiated then a good number of Kenyans would not have lost their lives by now. But some of us in key policy making positions quite often close our eyes to the public good and deliberately avoid making decisions that can help improve the lives of Kenyans. The railway and the dual carriageway road from Mombasa to Busia have both been victims of this.Railways and roads. These must go together. We have wasted time since independence when it comes to building good and integrated transport infrastructure. Now that we have woken up let us not allow time to waste us. In fact going into debt because of building good and durable infrastructure is very good economics. But let us not use that to cream off monies from the taxpayer due to poorly negotiated or arranged debts. The end will not under such circumstances justify the means.
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