Motorists stranded for 14 hours in monster jam on Mombasa Road
Hundreds of passengers and motorists were stranded on Mombasa Road for more than 14 hours on Sunday night and Monday morning.
The mess was emanating from a 10-kilometre stretch between Bachuma and Taru along the Mombasa-Nairobi highway.
The snarl-up was caused by a diversion around Taru, where part of the road is under repair.
Light rains made the ground muddy giving the vehicles hard time to access the road, causing the long gridlock.
NIGHT IN COLD
“I have spent the night in the cold. All my plans have been ruined,” Mr Fredrick Wachira, a traveller heading to Mombasa told Nation.co.ke in Voi, Taita Taveta County.
Another passenger, Mr Mohamed Abeid, said: “I had not expected this. We have been stuck here. We cannot tell if the place is secured enough because cases of people being attacked while in such a jam have been on the rise,” he said.
By 10am Monday, traffic police had been deployed to help untangle the vehicular jam along the busy highway.
In Mombasa, passengers scheduled to travel in the morning spent hours at booking offices, waiting for buses to transport them to destinations like Nairobi.
BUSES FAIL
Tens of passengers sat outside the Coast Bus booking offices helplessly waiting for their scheduled buses to pick them up.
“I have some perishable goods I was supposed to travel to Nairobi at 8am but it’s almost 11am now and we are still here,” said Ms Janet Wafula, a businesswoman.
Coast Bus Company Mombasa branch manager Adil Mirza said it is disappointing to have the same problem each year.
“The roads are so pathetic, we are doing all our best but all other stakeholders are letting us down. Buses are arriving now, they have inconvenienced our business and there is no communication on what they are doing to address the problem,” he said.
