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 Local Authorities.
Nairobi’s main roads are Mombasa Road (Nyayo Stadium to Mombasa), 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), Ngong Road (Kenyatta Avenue , State House Road and Valley Road junction), Lang’ata Road (Nyayo stadium to Bomas where it intersects with Rongai Road), Limuru Road (Ngara Road Muranga Road junction close to Jamhuri High School), Kiambu Road (Muthaiga Golf Club) and Kangundo Road (Umoja Outering Road). These connect Nairobi to the other cities and towns in Kenya.
When we look at where these roads begin in Nairobi, one realises that there is a need to change our thinking of how to handle them. All the roads originate well from within the city boundary limits.
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 past Westlands Roundabout on Waiyaki Way. The project is currently locked in a dispute with the World Bank withholding funds to the concession winner.
World over, elevated highways seem to be places where no one wants to be under. The areas would usually be dirty and stinking. In the western world they might not be as dirty but they are the normal hangouts for drug addicts, prostitutes and thugs. In Lagos, Nigeria and Cairo and tiny Luxor in Egypt, spaces underneath elevated highways have been turned into market places and makeshift living quarters, generally a very dirt place.
Value of land bordering elevated highways characteristically drops. Slums develop or people desert the buildings within the vicinity. Heading from Cairo towards the Giza pyramids you get onto elevated highways across the Nile. The buildings bordering the highways are pitiful and closely resemble those in a war zone. This is the same for many cities 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?
Past master plans of Nairobi had taken note of these future challenges and proposed solutions. The 1948 master plan had ring roads (Outering Road and Ring Road starting from Kibera all the way to Gigiri which has never been completed). The 1973 master plan 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 90 º angles with a promenade stretching from the national archive to community in the 1948 master plan.
Events have overtaken the 1948 master plan 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.
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.
Too much emphasis has been placed 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 used by 60% of the population, walking. Pedestrians have been given a raw deal.
Let’s leave out the elevated highway and build the ring roads as a closer or inner circuit encircling the city and the 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. These simple measures plus re-looking at the roads within the city centre as streets would truly make Nairobi “The Green City in the Sun”.
I always have problems with copy pasting western ideas from the 1950s and trying to implement them in Kenya today. While we may be lagging behind in developments compared to them, we should be strong enough to learn from their mistakes. Many are pulling down these elevated highways. We will do so too, in the next 30 or 40 years. Why put them up now? Ngumbau Gideon Eric Kigada Eric Loki George Arabbu Herbert Makori Stephen Lutta Kathuli Patrick Imran Will.
.."we should be strong enough to learn from their mistakes.", I would add SMART enough..:)
I thought the idea of the elevated highway was to have a direct pass up there and a slower city feeder road system below the elevated highway? where would slums mushroom near that? Erics argument works if we elevate the highway and leave the bottom unoccupied…in the case of Uhuru Highway, this is simply not the case!
I thought the idea of the elevated highway was to have a direct pass up there and a slower city feeder road system below the elevated highway? where would slums mushroom near that? Erics argument works if we elevate the highway and leave the bottom unoccupied…in the case of Uhuru Highway, this is simply not the case!
Totally makes sense..Now I wonder if it will make sense to the guys who are pushing this "development agenda" that is V 2030.