Rules on the Road

Driving down Nebraska’s highways, it’s easy to get a lead foot or simply be tempted to set the cruise control five mph over the speed limit to reduce the amount of time spent on the road.  Both come with the risk of those dreaded red and blue lights appearing in the rearview mirror.  When suddenly meeting a police car, you hold your breath, silently praying it won’t swiftly turn around and pull you over.  When approaching a construction zone, you hope you won’t have to sit for twenty minutes awaiting your turn to proceed slowly down the single lane. 

The unwritten/informal rules of the road in Kenya are different.  First of all, in semi-rural areas, there is no need to worry about police cars, as there are few officers and they certainly do not have cars.  Instead, the traffic police known for corruption, stand on the edge of the road.  Robert Ngeno, who shares this opinion with many, stated, “That’s the only job there is that people wake up and go to the road to get money without doing any work!” 

More times than not, when I have been in a vehicle, we have been waved over to the side.  The driver then drops a bribe (usually 200 Kenyan shillings or about $2.40) out the window and is then signaled to continue onwards.  There is no problem. For personal vehicles—at times I think there isn’t any real problem, but for public vehicles, which are always overcrowded, paying the small bribe keeps them from suffering severe consequences as new traffic laws dictate. 

While I was in Nairobi a few weeks ago, the new traffic laws went into effect.  No, I think some changes ought to be made as Kenyan roads are among the most dangerous in the world with a very high number of fatalities in traffic accidents, but in my opinion, the consequences for offenses under the new laws are unreasonable.  Take for example someone having no insurance on his/her vehicle, even if it expired only one or two days prior.  This person could face a fine of 500,000 Ksh (nearly $6,000) or 10 years of imprisonment!  Of course this led to an uproar and many Kenyans (especially in Nairobi) did something that they are great at—They went on strike and rioted.  I was in Nairobi’s Central Business District, when I noticed something amiss.  To my horror, I watched as conductors shoved people out of buses and matatus, honked their horns, and drove recklessly: speeding, careening around corners, barreling over medians, driving on the wrong side of the streets and nearly hitting people all while empty inside.  Angry citizens began to throw things at the vehicles.  I knew I had to get out of there.  After two hours of searching for a vehicle willing to carry passengers down Thika Road, I was forced to pay 300 Ksh as opposed to the normal 80 ksh to Juja, but it was worth getting out of town.  Prices were very much inflated over the next few days and are now fixed at higher rates than they were back in November. 

Before entering any vehicle, I am sure to negotiate the fare so as to prevent being overcharged or having an argument within.  Most vehicles are stuffed far beyond capacity—the records of vehicles that I been in are 16 people in Corollas meant to carry 4-5 people, 26 people in Nissans intended for 14, and 4 people on motorbikes which are not designed for more than 2.  Overstuffed vehicles are not the only things on the roads that are often riddled with potholes and quite often large rocks and dust, not to mention an insane number of speed bumps.  I’ve seen roads shared  by lorries (semi-trucks), motorcycles (bodabodas), matatus, private cars, buses, donkeys pulling carts or packing sacks of maize, pedestrians, and camels. 

The roads are like mazes—various forms of transport speeding around others while dodging potholes and taking unmarked detours.  In many places—especially between Kericho and Kisumu or Litein and Eldoret, the roads are supposedly under construction, so vehicles are forced to go down onto rough dusty paths and come back up after some time, without any signs of directing them.  Other surprises to drivers can be unmarked speed bumps and sometimes series of them.  Between two small towns in Bureti District, is a series of speed bumps: 1 bar, 2 bars, 3,4,3,2,1 within a few hundred feet.  Vehicles weave back and forth across the two lanes as they rumble slowly over them making them seem more dangerous to me than if the vehicles were driving quickly.

As uncomfortable as public transport can be at times, I’m thankful I don’t have to drive these crazy roads and remember to keep on the left-hand side.  I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand them.