New routes for Mombasa motorists as county fights jams

The Mombasa government has introduced new traffic rules that will see most of the major roads turned into one way.

The rules aim to ease traffic and reduce travel times for motorists.

The new routes take effect from Wednesday 5am.

The new rules will also see trucks barred from using the CBD except between 8pm and 5am daily.

“We are converting all our streets into one-way systems. That means, as you come from the Nyali bridge, all vehicles are required to turn left onto Sheikh Abdalla Farsy Road,” Mombasa transport executive Taufiq Balala said in his office on Tuesday.

This means no vehicle will be allowed to join the road heading to Saba Saba through Buxton from Nyali bridge as in the past.

Those going to Saba Saba will have to go round through Sheikh Abdalla Farsy Road from where they can exit at Kisauni Road (at Coast General Hospital junction).

They will proceed to the Lebanon roundabout from where they will join Jomo Kenyatta Avenue to Saba Saba.

Balala said there will be certain openings or exits where motorists who find themselves on the wrong lanes will be required to take.

“We have created a long train system whereby the head of the train will be Kengeleni and there will be junctions. Cars will not meet,” Balala said.

He said the traffic bottlenecks at roundabouts and junctions cause a lot of traffic snarl-ups thus wasting precious time.

The new system is also part of the preparation for a Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system that will be introduced in the county.

“We have also gazetted another notice requiring trucks, over 10 tonnes, to only operate at night,” Balala said.

The executive said this is to discourage long trucks from entering the CBD.

The trucks operating in Shimanzi and Mbaraki will operate as usual.

“The northbound trucks will not be an issue. The issue is with southbound trucks because they will end up in Bondeni, Market and Jomo Kenyatta where they will create mayhem,” Balala said.

The 5pm happy hour, was a temporary remedy to help people get home faster and will no longer be there.

The happy hour had all vehicles heading into the Nyali bridge from town use one way.

However, Balala said, they will be on standby just in case a happy hour will be needed.

“We expect a little bit of chaos in the first week or two because of the new system. We will have our traffic marshals at designated places to help motorists out,” the transport executive said.

Matatu owners and operators said they were not involved in designing of the new routes.

Matatu Owners Association Coast coordinator Salim Mbarak said he foresees even more traffic jams because of the chaos that will be witnessed.

He said vehicles that use the Bondeni route are more than those that use the Saba Saba route. Making the vehicles from town use the Saba Saba route will only congest the route.

“We just heard like other people. I see a situation where this new system is bound to fail,” Mbarak said.

Sudi Mohamed, a matatu driver plying the Likoni-Bamburi route, said the new system will create confusion and it will take some time before they settle.

“You know how new things are. Let us first experience the new routes before we can give our opinion,” Mohamed said.

He said matatu operators go by time and the number of trips per day. The new routes will determine whether it will take longer or shorter to make a trip.

Coast regional traffic boss Peter Maina said whoever came up with the idea had good intentions.

“What is remaining is the implementation part. We will initially do awareness campaigns and eventually we will make it,” Maina said.

The traffic boss said after three days of the new system, there will be a meeting of stakeholders to take stock of how the new system will have been, so as to note where to improve.

Maina said the only problem will be the pick-up and drop- off points for the PSVs, especially the matatus.

“In some places we have left no room for them to pick-up and drop-off passengers but we are working on that. Once we allocate those pick-up and drop-off points then it will be easier for us to enforce,” Maina said.

Balala, however, said the matatu industry has always been vilified even in cases where they are not to blame.

He said they bridge the gap of the demand for public transport.

“The failure stems from many years of poor planning. In the past, KBS buses were allocated specific stages,” Balala said.

However, he says, when the government-operated buses started dying due to mismanagement, the spaces allocated for them as bus stops and parks started being grabbed by individuals.

“Now, how do you blame the matatus for not having places to pick up and drop off passengers?” Balala said.

He said the matatu industry is run on a profit-priority system and not a safety-priority one.

“We want to move into a regulated public transport system but we can only do that once we reclaim all the public spaces that were meant for bus stages,” Balala said.

However, he said when they try to do that, they are met with court cases that delay the whole process and frustrate them.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)