The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure has moved to address design flaws on Nairobi’s Outering Road, which has been named one of the world’s most dangerous roads.
On Saturday, July 16, Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia told NTV that the government, in collaboration with other road agencies, is replicating some Nairobi Expressway designs to address challenges on Outering Road.
One of the measures is the construction of mesh trails to prevent pedestrians from crossing the 13-kilometer road at undesignated points.
Apart from mesh trails, Macharia stated that the government will construct new footbridges and conduct public awareness campaigns to educate the public on the importance of adhering to existing traffic rules.
“The solution to it, we shall put barriers where nobody can actually cross the road from an undesignated point. Pedestrians will have to save their lives by walking over 40 meters,” Macharia explained.
“We will use the similar approach that was used after a video went viral of students of Muguga Green and Bohra primary schools dangerously crossing the Expressway, yet there was a footbridge 300 meters away.”
The discussion on Outering Road started after the World Resources Institute (WRI) Director on Road Safety, Claudia Adriazola-Steil, highlighted the number of Kenyans who had lost their lives on the 13-kilometre road.
According to the survey, Outering Road is the riskiest road in Nairobi where at least 44 people died in road crashes in 2021.
“There was an investment in a highway, an urban highway named Outering in Nairobi. In the first nine months of 2021, it had been the most dangerous road in the city with very many fatalities. Ninety percent of them were pedestrians,” Adriazola-Steil stated.
President Uhuru Kenyatta launched Outering Road in 2015 to alleviate traffic congestion in Nairobi East.
