Last Wednesday, FW, a 10-year-old Grade 5 pupil at Westlands Primary School missed death by the skin of his teeth when a speeding motorist almost hit him as he walked to school.
It was early in the morning as he walked along School Lane road in the Westlands Nairobi to the school.
The shaken pupil said he braved the shock and did not tell the teachers his experience.
The school is located along School Lane, a narrow strip that connects Karuna close to Sarit centre in Westlands.
Though the narrow stretch adjacent to the institution’s gate has three zebra-marked bumps around, it lacks footpaths or crossing bridge to enable the children access the school safely.
The danger is even exacerbated by the fact that the bumps have got low over time, enabling speeding motorists to move without slowing down.
Overtaking cars on the narrow lane make the situation worse. Turns out, FW’s incident is not an isolated case.
According to teachers and parents of pupils in the school, the road does not just pose a danger to their children but is also a mark of negligence and empty promises by leaders.
The Star has learnt that the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Service had promised the school’s administration last year that it would expand the road, develop safe footpaths for the children and a crossing bridge, a promise yet to be fulfilled.
Hannington Ochieng’ the senior teacher at the school describes the road as a ticking time bomb.
He told the Star that the danger posed by the road has been a subject of discussion with the local administration and the parents for long yet no solution has emerged.
In fact, he said, a pupil was once hit by the side mirror of a speeding car but luckily did not sustain serious injuries.
“We rushed him to the nearby dispensary before calling her parent. She was lucky the case was not serious.”
The teacher recollected that prior to a presidential function in the school early last year, the stretch was dilapidated, with potholes that even endangered lives of the pupils as motorists navigated the road.
“It is an issue we have spoken about but no solution has come forth. The area MP Tim Wanyonyi has been supporting by constantly pushing to have the road expanded,” the senior teacher said.
“The road only got spruced up for the President to see. At the time, they also cleared the bushes around the school that was also a huge danger to our pupils. We are concerned over the high rise buildings around as well.”
The presidential function referenced was a May 13, 2021 visit to the school by then President Uhuru Kenyatta on a tour coordinated under the Global Partnership for Education project.
The tour also had then UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson visit a primary school in his country simultaneously.
Ochieng’ said Mohammed Badi, the former boss of the defunct NMS visited the school prior to the function and promised to make the road safer.
The public school is under the jurisdiction of the city county. The road is also under the authority of City Hall.
It has a population of 1,506 pupils and owns three buses for ferrying the learners.
Ochieng’ said not all the pupils use the school buses. In fact, 80 per cent of the pupils use public means to and from school.
“Majority can’t afford to pay for transportation by school buses. They use the road to access public means. The danger this narrow road poses to us is inestimable.”
George Mburu, a parent with a learner at the school, shared similar sentiments.
He said they have raised the concern many times in the PTA meetings to no avail, and now hopes that the new city Governor Johnson Sakaja will take it up.
Efforts to get a comment from the governor were futile as he did not pick our calls nor replied to our messages on the matter.
“It is time the governor expands this road and makes it friendly and safe to pedestrians and especially to our children using it on their way to and from school,” Mburu said.
Last year, road safety regulator NTSA declared Nairobi the most dangerous place with high road death incidents.
It said that 4,579 Kenyans lost their lives to road accidents in 2021 some of who were students on their way home.
"By end of last year, the country had lost 4,579 lives through avoidable road crashes, with 16,046 nursing injuries. Some of those who perished were students on their way home," outgoing government spokesman Cyrus Oguna said as he released the figures.
NTSA says most of the accidents were caused by reckless driving, dangerous overtaking, drunk driving, drunk walking, drunk riding, failure to use helmets among other issues.
In a November 2021 report, NTSA revealed Nairobi was the worst hit, with 439 road crashes recorded from January to October 31 last year.
This is an increase of 42 cases from the 397 recorded in the same period last year.
Kiambu county came second having recorded 373 road crashes followed by Nakuru at 295, Machakos at 180 and Murang'a at 132.