I am a victim:

I am a victim. A victim of justice and circumstances!

I am a victim because I happen to live in the vicinity of Thika Road. That eight lane super highway that has been built with the assistance of several Chinese contractors. I am a victim because I remember with nostalgia in the not too distant past having to wake up at 5.00 am in the morning ready to leave home at 5.30 am so as to get to the office by 7.45 am after dropping off the girls in school. Leaving even 15 minutes later was not an option since it meant getting to the office by 8.30 am or later. JUST IMAGINE!!

Now I suffer each morning because it now takes me a whole 20 minutes to get to work on a highway built with a speed limit of 110 km/h but whose official speed limit is currently at 50km/h and with the odd speed bump and pedestrian crossing thrown in for good measure. I oversleep many a time to well beyond 6.30 am when my body was used to being up and about by 5.00 am and it is only that my alarm stirs me awake from my deep slumber otherwise I would sleep on knowing that in 20 minutes after leaving the house I will be in the office. If only I lived in Ongata Rongai? I would be waking up as my body is used to at 5.00 am………..on second thoughts, for Ongata Rongai………..make that 4.00 am instead of being a victim of circumstances of living along Thika Road. JUST IMAGINE!!

 50 km/h? Please confirm to me that someone somewhere has a missing part in his brain? On second thoughts forget that question because rhetorical as it is, it can have no answer other than an affirmative one. How in heaven’s name do you enforce such a speed limit because no cop in his right mind will stand in the middle of the highway with arm outstretched to stop one of those ugly, humungous ‘Githurai 44’ matatus hell bent on breaking the speed limit on this super highway and therefore driving at well over 120 km/h tout leaning out of the door displaying all kinds of dangerous antics to impress God knows who! Why should I not be in the office within 10 minutes driving at 110 km/h minus the speed bumps and pedestrian crossings that just slow me down unnecessarily?         

But this highway has also brought its share of mad cap drivers, those who clearly were asleep, drunk or confused when the driving instructor was giving lessons on road markings and what they mean and the implications of how you react when you see them, or did they just buy their licenses and skip those boring lectures on road markings? These are the chaps who will accelerate as they get to the pedestrian crossing forcing pedestrians to scamper in an undignified manner in all directions or who will insist on entering a junction yet the road markings clearly indicate that the traffic from another direction has the right of way.

Some (mainly matatus) also access the service road through a non-designated spot off the highway which is supposed to be an exit lane, clearly marked as such, for vehicles accessing the highway itself where even just by looking at the design of such a spot you would know this unless of course you were a complete imbecile, which sadly many of them are. And what about the pedestrians and cyclists hell bent on dicing with death by walking on the overpasses and road tunnels despite clear warning signs to the contrary.

 I would fail miserably if I failed to recognize the kings of them all, those driving against the flow of traffic in total disregard to the lives of those they are ferrying and other legitimate road users (since they clearly have no regard for their own lives) having failed to spot (or totally ignoring) the ‘no right turn’ sign one kilometer back and then continuing against the traffic flow re-enforcing their stupidity by flashing their high beams at oncoming traffic to clear the way for them!! Boda boda operators are also notorious in this regard though they are not even worthy of a mention given that they are neither licensed nor insured meaning that they are not legal road users and furthermore  have no comprehension of the basic rules of the highway code!!They rank lower than pedestrians in my judgement.

If this is what justice is all about, bringing traffic from a halting grind and perpetual gridlock on the old Thika Road to a 20 minute commute at 50 km/h on the new superhighway, perhaps I would be better off suffering on a road where I knew that it would take me ages to get where I was going. If this beautiful but shambolic and dangerous super highway where breaking the posted speed limit, crossing the highway at undesignated spots by pedestrians who also walk where they are not supposed to, driving on the wrong side of the road, PSV’s stopping to pick  and drop passengers on the highway rather than use the service road and designated bus stops and forcing me to endure unnecessary and expensive fuel guzzling stops and slowdowns at numerous zebra crossings and speed bumps is the norm rather than the exception then I may have been better off in the old days.

So even as you wake up at 4.00 am if you live in Ongata Rongai to get to the office by 7.30 am, spare a prayer for us the victims of justice and circumstances who have no choice but to use Thika Road every day and get to the office in 20 minutes instead of our rightful 10 minutes the downside being that we dice with potential mayhem along every meter of this highway. With the passage of time and the completion of your own road to hell (at present), you too will be victims later rather than sooner……….and you can take that to the bank!!

Time to get to work now………in 20 minutes flat at 50 km/h!

JUST IMAGINE!!