The city is a living organism – pulsating – expanding and contracting, dividing and multiplying.
Dennis Crompton – A Guide to Archigram 1961 – 74
What is the difference between a road and a street? A road connects two points, a street is a road flanked by buildings on either one or both sides creating a 3 dimensional space. Most cities grow from small villages and towns and are connected to other areas of commercial interest using roads. In Kenya, ideally, roads would normally fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Roads and streets fall under the jurisdiction of the City Council of Nairobi. When the town clerk says that he cannot do anything about repairing a certain road, he is actually saying, “that is not a street but a road so it is none of my business please talk to the ministry of roads”.
Let us take a closer look at Nairobi’s main roads which connect the city to other towns:
- Mombasa Road (now being upgraded to a 6 lane Highway),
- Thika Road (also being upgraded to a 8 lane super highway),
- Waiyaki Way (4 lanes),
- Naivasha Road (2 lanes),
- Ngong Road (2 lanes),
- Langata Road (4 lanes before narrowing down to 2 lanes after Langata)
- Limuru Road (2 lanes)and
- Kiambu Road (2 lanes)
- Kangundo Road (2 lanes)
These are the main roads connecting Nairobi to the other cities and towns in Kenya. When we take a closer look at where these roads begin in Nairobi, then one realises that there is a need to change our thinking of how to handle these roads:
- Mombasa Road – Nyayo Stadium to Mombasa
- Ngong Road – Kenyatta Avenue , State House Road and Valley Road junction
- Langata Road – Nyayo stadium to Bomas where it intersects with Rongai Road.
- Thika Road – Muthaiga Golf club roundabout but technically it starts at the Forest road / Limuru Road junction next to the Swami temple.
- Waiyaki Way – Westlands roundabout.
- Naivasha Road – Dagoretti Corner
- Limuru Road – Ngara Road Muranga Road junction close to Jamhuri High School
- Kiambu Road – Muthaiga Golf Club
- Kangundo Road – Umoja Outering Road
It does not fail one to notice that the roads all originate well within the city boundary limits. Within the city boundary, these roads have today become streets. These roads should be handled as streets. If the city had taken this to mind the buildings allowed to come up along the roads would be of the kind that encompass the road they flank. For example, the buildings along Ngong Road from Dagoretti Corner to Lenana School should ideally have been of the highest quality since they all face a green field on one side of the road.
Hide the jua kali workers behind the buildings and have high quality display areas at the front intersected with a few restaurants and café’s. Imagine what effect such an action would have on the land value in Dagoretti not to say the quality of life. This type of thinking should be extended to all the buildings coming up along all roads within the city limits. Buildings should be vetted for how they face or react to the road, thus creating a 3dimensional view to anyone on the street…the road, the buildings on both sides of the road and the sky above.
What does this have to do with the discussion about an elevated Uhuru highway? Actually, Uhuru highway is a small part of what will eventually be elevated according to the current plans. The elevated highway will start from somewhere between Capital Centre and Total Service Centre on Mombasa road all the way just past Westlands Roundabout on Waiyaki Way. The project is currently locked in a dispute with the World Bank withholding funds to the concession winner.
From every city that I have personally visited, no matter where it is in this world, elevated highways seem to share a certain characteristic: No one wants to be under them! If you are under an elevated highway, then it is normally to carry out some business that leaves the place dirty and stinking. In the western world they might not be as dirty but they are the normal hangouts for drug addicts, prostitutes and small time thugs. From what I have seen in Lagos, Nigeria and in Cairo and tiny Luxor in Egypt, developing countries turn spaces underneath elevated highways into market places and makeshift living quarters, generally a very dirt place.
The value of land bordering the elevated highways drop and slums develop or people desert the buildings. In Cairo when one leaves the east part of the city which is also the better part of the city, to head to the Giza pyramids you get onto these elevated highway once you cross the Nile. The buildings bordering the highways are pitiful and closely resemble those in a war zone. This is the same for every city in the World. Why would Kenya see it fit to construct an elevated highway on a road cutting through the city centre literally dividing the city into two and risking a serious drop in the value of land in the heart of the city? The common argument has been that there is too much traffic on Mombasa Road. This is true, since most of it is transit traffic. Does the transit traffic have to pass right through the city centre?
Studying the past master plans of Nairobi, it had been envisioned in the 1948 masterplan to have ring roads (Outering Road and Ring Road starting from Kibera all the way to Gigiri which has never been completed) all round Nairobi. The 1973 masterplan added the southern and northern by-passes. These were to keep traffic away from the city centre but along ring roads around the city. The current Uhuru Highway was meant to be intersected at 90º angle with a promenade stretching from the national archive to community in the 1948 masterplan. Events have overtaken the 1948 masterplan vision and Uhuru highway has become a major thoroughfare the by-passes and ring roads have never been completed.
Any road that is expanded attracts more users. Mombasa Road has been expanded, but it has not reduced the traffic. We now blame the roundabouts for the traffic jams and are planning to get rid of them, something that I consider a big mistake. Roundabouts can function without traffic lights. T-junctions and cross junctions cannot, especially on a multi lane highway. The traffic lights we install are badly programmed causing more traffic jams. Casing points are the two ends of Mbagathi Road where the police see it fit to man the junctions full time ignoring the newly installed traffic lights. If we build the overpass above Uhuru highway and get rid of the roundabouts, we will increase the traffic considerably and eventually the traffic jams.
We seem to put too much stress on private cars as a mode of transport. Children are growing up who have never been in any form of public transport in Nairobi. The Nairobi Metropolitan 2030 Strategy mentions bicycles as a mode of transport only once. No explanation is given on how to promote it although this is one transport mode that is rapidly picking up in Nairobi. The least budget allocation (KES 0.1 billion) in the strategy is for the most common form of transport in Nairobi (60%): pedestrians.
The solution is simply, forget the elevated highway, build the ring roads as a closer or inner circuit encircling the city and the northern and southern bypasses as an outer, wider ring road encircling the city. These should be promoted as the best way to go round and through the city, from west to east, north to south. Uhuru highway should be made a cumbersome road to use especially if you are driving through Nairobi. The intersections should retain the roundabouts and all efforts made to discourage the use of Uhuru highway as a thoroughfare. Pedestrian walkways and bicycle paths should be built everywhere. A mass transit system like a light rail network should be built to reduce the stress of cars on the roads. This simple measures plus re-looking at the roads within the city centre as streets would truly make Nairobi “The Green City in the Sun”.
Wow! I have never 4 once thought about it that way,great thinking,what a warped thinktank we have in our government
brlliant idea and less costly.
The logic behind the arguments make for a very compelling case. To me, it’s a heavier taxpayer friendly, and greener argument than the one put forward by the politocrats. Since our leadership doesn’t have warped thinking but selfish myopic one, I’d suggest that we modify that latter idea so that their interests can be met and voila! Everyone will be a winner. How about that?
lovely insight..and research
I need raffik to comment on this…
enemies of development…
it is something worth thinking abt. coz really how many private cars drive from general motors to westlands straight on? very few. the traffic we encounter comes from south b/c to city centre. then from gong rd n kilimani to city centre/westlands. we culd build the elevated high and have only have the trucks on them- which trucks wud have used the by passess n ring rds
True no need for an elevated highway. Too expensive to build and to maintain. The bypasses with proper planning should b sufficient
@mbithi,kenyas economy is not static,the middle class is gettin richer.pple will buy more cars.lets think LONGTERM bt not SHORTTERM.thats the BIGGER picture.
The guy is smart,we need not the elevated highway along uhuru hway what happens to the investment beneath the highway,that wld mean something like broad daylite robbery of their investment not mentioning the -ve exposure of UoN.never thot along those line tho i use the elevated highway here daily.Kuddos Eric.
What Nairobi needs, are NOT elevated highways destroying whatever was left of the once beautiful city of the 1960s and 1970s.
What she needs, are tramways, light urban railways, a circumferential railroad, and quick suburban feeders (like the – slow and rotten – Thika line).
In fact, the already EXISTING many urban rail branches – you will be astonished how many, I have marked them all on Wikimapia – could be made into a suitable if fragmentary public transport network within a mere 3 months, if the political will were only present.
Sadly, political won’t is more common than political will. But a few underpasses (or overpasses) would not go amiss instead of roundabouts with police AND traffic lights, either of which seem to cure the traffic jams.
Ever realised that the jams only come about whenever the traffic cops are in attendance? The lights are badly programmed so no case for that either. To employ more creativity, try coming up with a way of making the land under the flyovers more environmentally and socially functional. Yes? Or adopt the idea to the leadership’s selfish and myopic interests and everyone’s happy. Yes?
Feasibility studies are done not only on the present but may be the next fifty years or so so to pupport that not the way to go is just think of the present day we need the overpasses and to control routing of traffic and that’s the only way… we can have an efficient transport system well i concur this was the pilot program we need this on the congested Mombasa road and i agree a grid system network of roads would also ease the mess as a particular point say X will be accessible from a probable number of routes depending on where you are coming from an option we don’t have at the moment.
Wow. great thinking…..
Great ideas we dont need the elevated highway coz they will cause serious security problems all we need are the bypasses and the ring roads and the city council cannot afford and contract to build proper roads they just dont have the capacity and the big monies involved, you forgot to mention Juja road which is also very busy at all times I think it is high time it is expanded to three lanes……
Physical planning in Kenya context is just a fogotten thing with economic planning being mandated with the responsibility of anticipating and directing ‘desired’ development. our local authorities lack personell yet we hear of graduating physical/urban planners year after year form our prestigeous universities. yes we recognize the economic planners but they are not equiped with relevant techniques and skills to do spatial planning. our politicians are well known of proposing things that leaves a legacy with their names engraved in the phenomena. what is proposed regarding the elevations of highways is just to create something that looks good from far but in reality being far from good in functioning. it is just after that, when planners will be called to critique the developments made. what i mean is that it is a fact that development has surpassed development in our what was beautiful city and towns.
thanks eric, really appreciated reading this from you! keep me posted on any other articles you write
ELEVATED HIGHWAY REMOVAL: Field Operations Storms Seattle Waterfront
http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=4861
Quote:
“The project, estimated at $569 million, will provide nine acres of open space, left when an elevated freeway along the city’s central waterfront is demolished. The Alaskan Way Viaduct, on the city’s west side, is an imposing physical and visual barrier that planners have dreamed of removing for decades.”
How about simply decongesting the city of Nairobi by promoting commercial and industrial growth in the other provincial/county towns? That way, fewer people will migrate into the capital city and those in the city will emigrate to the growing towns. And, there’ll be less traffic.
i beg to differ a bit ,it can work , the elevated highway on T- construct support with preservation of the lower uhuru highway. seen it in bangkok and capetown and section of M1 in johannesburg best way to empty city traffic and rapidly at that
what we need is proper rail infrastructure to reduce overdependence on the roads. such have helped alot in combating traffic flow problems in modern towns across the globe. Majority of kenyans use public mode of transport. So why not invest in proper rail networks as envisioned in the vision 2030 plan and divert the over reliance on road networks to such.
Nice diversified thinking especially on the land use beneath elevated highways and having a green city. Would agree with those advocating for a well planned underground rail sytem. Escpecially if the rail sytem can be planned beneath the existing major road network. Finally get in place a competitive public bus sytem in place so that Nairobians have a wide choice of reliable public transport sytem. And yes VOOOOLAAAAA, who would then need to use the expensive personal private cars?
Eric, your article is revealing of the mess in our infrastructure sector and puts the folly of our priorities into focus. I believe that there is an important link between the economy and politics. Each depends on the other:
I visited Kenya in December 2012 and did an impromptu visual research (no scientific protocols here) on transport infrastructure in the Nairobi metropolitan area and came up with the most interesting observations:
– The poorer and highly populated areas have the worst infrastructure vis-à-vis the green-leafed areas: For example, most of the new by-passes and ring-roads cut through the leafier suburbs of Nairobi offering the residents easy access to airports and exit roads from the city. For example, there is a bypass cutting through Runda to Ruaka serving a few thousand residents as opposed to a sorry strip of a road (Outer Ring Road) linking Mombasa Road and Thika roads and serving millions of Nairobi residents. The average time I spent from one end of the Outer Ring road to the other during the rush hour was 3 hours. Studies (e.g. King’ori Zacharia Irungu, (2007), Decongesting Nairobi – Urban Transportation challenges) have shown that Outer Ring and Jogoo roads are the busiest urban roads in Kenya yet they remain in a deplorable state despite serving millions of lower and middle income earners in Nairobi. Misplaced priorities? You decide!
– This inequality is accentuated further by the current status of the Airport North Road linking the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to Outer Ring Road and the Eastern Bypass. Despite serving as a link to the major international port of entry into Kenya, the road resembles a quarry. Many people have voiced their concerns with the authorities regarding the state of the road in the process triggering a ping-pong blame game between the Kenya Airports Authority, the Ministry of roads and the Nairobi City Council. I can only imagine the speed with which the road would be re-carpeted if a member of the cabinet changed residences to Tassia Estate!
– There is an unnatural fixation with road transport as opposed to rail transport – During my days as a struggling young man, I used to get on the Kenya Railways train to Embakasi. The train would be often packed to the hilt leading to competition for the little air circulating in the train. More importantly, I observed that one wagon would have in excess of 150 people during each rush hour trip. This observation was recently re-affirmed when I got onto the train to Syokimau (just for experience’s sake). This particular train had approximately 200 passengers in a wagon (seated or standing comfortably and with dignity)! With 6 wagons in tow, this compares to nearly 100 thrirteen-seater Matatus which equals to over 500 meters of road occupied! Environmentalists should tell you about the pollution bit…
– The most telling observation, however, were the amounts of space along the railway line – from Nairobi Railway station to Syokimau via Makadara, Donholm, Embakasi or to Dandora, Kibera, Kikuyu, Konza… spaces and spaces of bare land which apparently belongs to the Kenya Railways Corporation. I could not help dreaming of the life-changing potential of rail transport in Kenya. Discomforts notwithstanding, 3-hour road-trips were reduced to a mere 30 minute trip – and that’s at snail speed in dilapidated wagons. I failed to understand why our policy makers and our technocrats have failed to take advantage of this mode of transport that promises to make our transportation experiences akin to paradisiacal sojourns. The answer was not too far away – the type of leaders we choose determines the level of advancement we attain: The law of cause and effect is a good indicator that bad leaders will result in bad policies and thus transportation experiences! There is so much potential in Kenya for a railway revolution; but first a revolution must occur in our minds and our deeds. When we finally let go of the vices of chauvinism, political patronage, ethnic and racial bigotry, only then will we ensure that squatters currently residing on railway land can be resettled elsewhere; politically connected individuals curtailing railway expansion plans for the benefit of their Matatu businesses can be pushed out of the way. We can ensure that we speak loudly during the upcoming elections (particularly the gubernatorial elections) and that we get heard loud and clear.
That is the link between politics and economics!
[…] Our friends over at This Big City brought to our attention an excellent Quora discussion regarding elevated freeway/highway construction. Nairobi is currently undergoing the process of implementing this very same type of construction which one of our chief editors Eric Kigada discussed in an open letter to the Government of Kenya. In it, Kigada expressed his disapproval for this highway project (NUTRIP) and elaborates more on his reasons and possible solutions in this article. […]