Nairobi News

Easing congestion

There should be rules to guide people’s behaviour to unclog the streets and allow those in a hurry to move.

“The are times it is just impossible, to say the least, walking in the city streets,” says Maria Morris.

She suggests there should even be a fast lane for those walking without any business on a certain street, while those shopping should have a lane to idle in.

Morris says Friday afternoons are the worst times because there are a lot of idlers on the streets waiting to go out with their working friends later in the evenings. Most annoying, says Morris, are people who stop to chat right in the middle of a busy street.

If County Hall is able to arrest those dropping rubbish or using cell phones in  wrong places, then they can tackle  this as well, she says.

**********

Fees alert

There are school head teachers who issue Form One admission letters asking for the school fees amounts based on the Government guidelines, only to turn on parents after they have enrolled their children with impossible amounts later, warns John Ngunu.

“This happened to me last year. I had happily cleared the school fees asked for in the admission letter for a certain girls school for my daughter only to be confronted with a “first term fee balance,” when schools closed for second term, “he says.

Following up he was told they were harmonising school fees amounts between all parents —whatever that meant. “I later realised that any parent who went asking for a vacancy at the school got it at a cost — which we also had to even up at the end of the day,” he says.

**********

Noise menace

Once upon a time there was talk about controlling noise levels as part of the National Environment Management Authority’s work.

There was even a time touting was an offence that matatu crew could get penalised for. What became of all this? asks Tony M.

Today, the noise in the city centre and places like Muthurwa and Gikomba is so much you can barely communicate on your phone.

Some traders, especially those selling music CDs and such other merchandise put their players on the highest volume possible to ensure they outdo their competition, while other shout the prices of their wares for all to hear.

This makes the places impossible to spend time in even when one has business to do there, he says.

**********

Matatu craze

Overtaking on pedestrian lanes seems to be the skill that qualifies matatu drivers and sets them apart from other motorists, says Juliana Ngeru from Ngong’.

“You see a big bus overtaking outside the road and missing the drainage trench by a few inches and you feel lucky to be driving yourself,” she says.

Only very disciplined drivers will follow the traffic at the pace they should and these earn the respect of other road users.

Even private motorists have to close up any gaps in traffic completely to prevent the PSVs from forcing their way in as they overtake carelessly.

Traffic officers should rein in PSV crews lest they disorganise everyone else and create a worse mess than is normally on our roads during rush times.

**********