Skip to main content

Mombasa road to get Footbridges as accidents kill one

Metroscope Engineering has been contracted to conduct surveys across the Nairobi - Mlolongo stretch of the Mombasa Highway. The survey started on Wednesday 15th and till Friday 15th and was carried at various spots including Bellevue/South B, Parkside Towers/Ole Sereni , General Motors/Enterprise Road, Imara Daima amongst others. It is not known who has commissioned the survey though at the time. This though is likely to be the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) which has taken a more active role in improvement, maintenance and construction of urban roads in the country. In Nairobi, the City Council of Nairobi (CCN) is also supposed to be in charge of roads though has been playing a lesser role over time. Other agencies in charge of roads in the country include the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KERA) while the Kenya Roads Board (KRB) plays a wider role in highways. KURA, KERA KRB all fall under the national government while CCN is under local authority.

Completion of the survey is expected to lead to selection of busy passenger-vehicle interaction spots for construction of foot bridges. Metrsoscope is expected to give costs of the project after the survey. Road users have for long complained about the absence of foot bridges across the international highway. The only foot bridge on the road is at Nyayo Stadium round about.

The lack of foot bridges has led to at least one death weekly as passengers are knocked down by speeding motorists. Notorious spots are General Motors/Enterprise junction, Bellevue/South B, Parkside Towers and Capital Centre in that order.  Passengers crossing at Tegla Lorupe junction have been lucky with lower rates due to junctions at General Motors , Cabanas and the General Motors fly over that slow vehicles down. Speeding Matatus have been the biggest culprits followed by trucks.


Pedestrians have also advised for the choice of metal-mesh sided foot bridges as a security precaution. Concrete sided foot bridges such as the one at Nyayo are rarely used especially when it gets dark as users are afraid of muggers hiding at the top of the bridge. Cases of muggings at poorly lit and hidden foot bridges are common around Nairobi.

Driver of this car and his passenger escaped with slight
injuries when it was hit from behind as it tried to
avoid another accident.
At the same time, as the survey carried on, one person lost their life and two others were slightly injured in two accidents that occurred within Mombasa road in a 24 hour period. A passenger crossing the road at Bellevue/South B was fatally knocked down last week on Wednesday evening.



On Thursday morning, a driver and his passenger escaped with slight injuries when the vehicle they were travelling in rolled into a ditch. The early morning accident occurred at the Tegla Lorupe road - Mombasa road intersection near Imara and Cabanas. Witnesses say that a saloon car had abruptly slowed down to avoid hitting a Nissan matatu that had driven into Mombasa Road from Tegla Lorupe road. Another Nissan Matatu behind the saloon car was unable to slow down and hit the saloon car from the back resulting in the vehicle overturning and landing into a ditch.

The Tegla Lorupe-Mombasa road junction is risky to drivers due to poor design of the junction with no slip roads on either side of the road. The design has resulted in regular traffic at the spot and accidents in the past. Tegla Lorupe road was recently constructed by the City Council of Nairobi.

The Matatu that hit the overturned vehicle. The speeding
matatu did not slow down in time as the car avoided
another matatu .
Construction of fly overs and upgrading of North Airport road is continuing at a fast pace. The road will have round-abouts and the junction into Mombasa Highway eradicated and replaced with fly overs. The contact has been awarded to China Road and Bridge Company (CRBC) and is part of the Eastern Bypass project undertaken by KURA.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beers in Kenya: A sober opinion

Note: This is a dated post and has since been mostly passed by events. SAB Miller beers including Castle and Peroni are no longer widely available in Kenya after their exist. Sirville Brewery was bought out by Brew Bistro before being permanently shut in a tax dispute. Kenya is a land of milk, honey, beaches and taxes. I have penned, or is typed, a newer post here .  Peroni - One of the best beers in Kenya. Did a taste of canned and bottled Italian, and bottled Tanzanian I like the tangy flavour and body in Tanzanian Peroni. The can is close. Heineken drinkers will like the Italian one.  I have had a short beer swigging stint in my life. It has however been long enough for me to share my opinion of Kenyan beer. Interestingly, over the course of sharing such opinions with other drunkards connoisseurs,  I have found that we all have different views as to what beer is the best, which one makes you too drunk, or which one gives one free, extra hangover for every ha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kenyan Beers and Craft Beer Reviews for 2025

It's 2025, and you asked for yet another Kenyan beer review. Let's cut straight to the chase - we keep the many stories for once we are drunk. Right? This year we categorize the beers according to breweries.  Bila Shaka / Bateleur  Flagship is Bila Shaka which is a rich flavoured but bitter IPA with 6% volume.  They focus more on quality and experimenting.  Home to many pleasantly (sweet per 2 people. I agree) favoured beers like Dire Straits, and for the ladies who love it a lot on the sweeter side, there's Honey Badger. These come in at about 5% or so. Jua Kali isn't as sweet as the above and is a mixed rice and barley beer, for some reason popular in the hot coast. Capitan is their bar beer and is a light-ish, pleasant beer at 4% volume and a good time passer when you're there for a long and good night and have things to do the next day. My favourite local brewer and highly recommended, especially Dire Straits. It's a medium beer, don...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Nairobi City By-Laws that Never Were

Well, you have all heard about the proposed Nairobi city by Laws, currently awaiting approval by the Local Government minister. The proposed laws seemed to be quite comprehensive, and ranged from simple laws governing traffic-lights-conduct to the outrageous ones which seek to limit the behavior of city dogs. We here at gramware have been having a feeling that some of the laws on dogs were referring to a word used to co-notate the gender of a female dog; and commonly used to refer to human beings with outrageous behaviours. Still, we think that there are some laws that city hall missed, and we decided to list some of them here. Most of them might be outrageous, and probably a reason why they didn't make the cut. Here they are: It shall be illegal for a city Resident to stop on a street to stare at a video screen for a period of time longer than 15 seconds. any resident contravening this shall be charged with obstruction. Pedestrians within the city shall attempt to walk in almost ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lusaka and Livingstone Zambia to Namibia By Road

Zambia is a pretty large country,  an exciting one and with no shortage of potholes.  For instance, take the direct route from Lusaka - Livingstone to Namibia through the Sesheke - Katima Mulilo border crossing. Typically, roads are either good or tend to have potholes here and there. However, the last 120 kilometres of the Livingstone to Sesheke/Katima Mulilo route are best described as potholes dotted by some road here and there for the just thirty kilometres past Kazungula town, which is also the Zambia - Botswana border crossing.  Trying to drive to Sesheke is so bad it will take you anywhere between 4 hours to 6 hours to navigate those 100 kilometres. You may or may not have your dignity at the end and your vehicle may be in more than one piece.  If you really must use the Sesheke - Katima Mulilo crossing as of December 2022, then take the 900 kilometre longer detour from Lusaka to Mongu then back to Katima Mulilo. It doesn't guarantee you absence of potholes, b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nairobi's Top 4 Texas Brisket Places Reviewed and Ranked

Brisket on a bed of roast vegetables with barbecue sauce at Texas Brisket, Kikuyu  This review has been updated after a number of you suggested I try the brisket at County2County.  What's the best place to have Brisket in Nairobi? What's even brisket?  Brisket is one of the toughest cuts in a cow, from around the belly. It is so tough that it has to be smoked for about 16 hours to tenderise. But that there, is the catch.  12 to 16 hours later, it is the most flavourful and softest cut you will ever have. So full of flavour and so soft you can pick it apart with your fingers.  However, due to the long cooking time involved, only a few places offer brisket in Nairobi.  The best so far is Texas Brisket which is located within Kikuyu Railway station.  They do the meat for a proper 16 hours, and will usually have a fatty or non-fatty portion. The fatty portions are more tasty. A 500 gram serving goes for KSh. 900 and a 1 KG order comes with a serving of fre...
Post a Comment
Read more