A recent story where the newspapers reported that some policemen in Mombasa are having a hard time arresting truck drivers on account of technology that enables the trucks tires to remain intact even after rolling over the police road block spikes in the middle of the road thanks to self-sealing properties injected into the tyres piqued my interest. This was a fable if ever I have heard one but that probably explains why most police road block spikes look like something akin to well run over road kill, but that’s a story for another day.
The excuse by the police officer (who comes up with these stories anyway?) that their vehicles were rammed into by over loaded trucks and then the trucks sped off is the stuff of Aesop’s Fables which however difficult to rationalize have kept children enthralled for generations! No self-respecting Kenyan should believe such utter nonsense when clearly the intention is to deflect our attention from some nefarious goings on along our highways.
But, let’s analyse this issue logically.
Firstly you have a contingent of police officers manning a road block at a weigh bridge along with assorted other officers from the Ministry of Transport and the SGS at two sections along the 500 kilometer Mombasa to Nairobi highway. Each of them is responsible for something or the other within the weighbridge station while the policemen are presumably there to ensure law and order is maintained and that there is adequate protection for the other personnel carrying out their lawful duties. In between the two weighbridge locations at Mariakani & Athi River you have innumerable police checks of one form or another some equipped with police vehicles at the more remote sections of the highway some even equipped with speed guns to catch unwary over speeding drivers. How come they were unable to catch the ‘speeding’ trucks either through the speed guns use or the tried and tested method of just giving chase!!
Secondly, the trucks in question are behemoths and what are popularly referred to as trailers with 18 or 22 wheels with most carrying heavy loads of commodities and machinery to destinations upcountry and even beyond our borders. Many carry the 20 or 40 foot closed containers and as someone told me you just have to look at the way the tires are in contact with the road surface to known if the contents of the trailer are heavy or light. If you have ever had the misfortune of being stuck behind these trailers while on Mombasa Road, then to say that they are capable of ‘speeding’ off is to mangle the usage of the term speeding if you know what I mean.
Thirdly, these trailers crawl along at a mind numbing 50 kmp/h………on a downhill slope when fully laden and at a slothful crawl when going up even the smallest hill. At certain places on this highway, they even have special climbing lanes for the trailers so that other traffic may at least overtake at these sections and flow comfortably and where many of the trailers, huffing and puffing and belching obnoxious clouds of diesel exhaust come to a juddering halt unable to complete the climb clear signs of being over loaded. Then some joker claims that these trailers ‘sped’ off!
Finally, my experience of Mombasa Road is that there are few if any alternative routes that one may take along the highway to get to Nairobi & beyond. Something as big as a trailer cannot possibly hide or be hidden anywhere along the highway without being spotted by anyone with 20/20 vision and if the shambolic recent police recruitment exercise is anything to go by, a great premium is kept on the physical attributes of those keen to join the force including presumably eyesight. So how can we entrust our security to people who can’t ‘see’ a large trailer on a 500 kilometer highway which is the gateway to East Africa that has almost run over other fellow officers along the way? Even if we extend the journey by any of these ‘speeding’ trailers all the way to any of the border crossings with our neighbors, that gives the authorities a 1,000 kilometer and at least a 3 day window in which to locate and arrest the offending drivers!!!
Some of the comments (excuses is more like it) attributed to our men and women of the police force are just comedic in their dead pan delivery and this one clearly takes the cake. It belittles the intelligence of the Kenyan populace and becomes yet another joke focused on the extent of the (in)abilities of those in charge of keeping us all safe. Who is responsible for disciplining and keeping such dim officers who can’t even be trusted to communicate propaganda statements right?
Come on man, we Kenyans are not as daft as you think so go tell that to the birds!!
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