Four travel hacks that may keep you safe this Christmas

Travellers at Kisumu Bus Park wait for matatus to ferry them home ahead of the festive season, with some stranded for more than an hour. [Rodgers Otiso, Standard]

Road travel has become an existential peril on parts of Kenya’s highway network. Researchers estimate that road fatalities have increased fourfold over the past three decades.

Roughly three-quarters of those killed or injured are economically productive young adults, placing the very core of Kenya’s growth engine at risk from an epidemic of preventable deaths.

For these reasons, the Rironi-Mau Summit Road has been earmarked for expansion into a multi-lane highway. As a critical stretch of the Northern Corridor, it funnels commerce from the port of Mombasa through Western Kenya onward to the landlocked economies of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Few roads are as vital to the economic fortunes of Kenya and its hinterland. In its current state, however, the highway is an ordeal. On good days, it taxes both patience and endurance; on bad ones, it becomes either a vast, immobile car park, or, more grimly, a recurring scene of carnage, as fatal accidents mount with near-daily regularity.

Obsolete design bears much of the responsibility but human failings, recklessness, impatience and indiscipline, also deserve their share of blame. Work is already underway to widen the highway. Once finished, the project should curb the needless loss of life and bolster Kenya’s ambitions as a regional transport and logistics hub.

Yet concrete and asphalt alone cannot remedy the human frailties that make the road perilous. While construction continues, those shortcomings must be addressed. The following travel hacks may help Kenyans exercise sounder judgement during the festive season.

First, Kenyans are creatures of habit. For eleven months of the year, they neglect their rural homes, only to stage a frantic annual migration upcountry in the week before Christmas, retracing their steps in the opening days of the new year. The result is a predictable two-week bottleneck. Along the Northern Corridor, traffic snarls extend almost unbroken from Rironi to Mau Summit, easing only briefly on Boxing Day and a day or two before the new year.

For those who must travel, the least punishing window in either direction lies between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve. Second, the nation’s middle class has expanded steadily in recent years. Car ownership, once a marker of affluence, has transitioned from a luxury to a quotidian necessity.

Consequently, households increasingly prefer private vehicles over public transport, exacerbating road congestion. For solo commuters, a more economical and efficient alternative lies in using public transit or participating in carpooling schemes, both of which would alleviate the strain on the highways.

Third, motorists seeking a more leisurely yet less congested journey may eschew the A104, the Nairobi-Malaba highway, in favour of scenic alternatives. One may, for instance, proceed unimpeded to Nyeri before navigating to Nyahururu, Nakuru, Eldama Ravine and Nyaru en route to Eldoret, thereby circumventing the highway’s most notorious bottlenecks.

An additional option lies in the Ngong – Suswa – Bomet – Kericho – Kisumu corridor, which not only mitigates the frustrations of traffic congestion but also economises on both time and expenditure. Finally, drivers should avoid fatigue and alcohol, which impair judgement.

Speed invites danger, reckless driving often ends in crashes. The most important nut in the vehicle is the one behind the wheel. Keep that nut sober. Merry Christmas!

-The writer is a public policy analyst