- Development almost naturally follows roads, as transport affects almost every aspect of economic activity.
- It supports Nairobi's 27.5 per cent contribution to the country's GDP and Kiambu's 5.9 per cent
Just about ten years ago, the entire stretch of Kiambu Road from Muthaiga Golf Club all the way to Kiambu Town had no visible building in sight.
In the recent past, there has been a population explosion with multiple residential areas burgeoning through what was once almost exclusively farmlands.
The rapid increase in new residential areas including Fourways Junction, Edenville, Runda Paradise, Mushroom, Ineza, Runda Paradise, Five Star Meadows, Thindigua and Kasarini among others, have come with tens of thousands of residents that fall in the middle and upper-middle-class segments, meaning the majority of the population own at least one or two cars.
The 10.8 kilometer single-lane stretch from Muthaiga Golf Club to Kiambu Town, can no longer support the growth of the area which has also seen the number of petrol stations increase from two in 2016 to 8 at present.
Other notable establishments that sprout daily include malls and mini-malls, car wash ventures, entertainment spots, hospitals, supermarkets and liquor stores, hotels, recreational centers, churches and schools, mostly within close proximity to the road.
The road also seems to have joined Langata Road and Ngong Road as a motor vehicle dealership hub, hosting dozens of car yards.
Long hours of traffic are synonymous with the road, and to beat this, traffic police have devised what has come to be popularly referred to as “Happy Hour”.
Borrowing from the common restaurant practice when drinks are sold at reduced prices at a certain period of the day, the Kiambu Road Happy Hour is when traffic police block vehicles joining the road from Thika Road in the morning rush-hour, to allow those headed to the city centre uninterrupted out-flow on both lanes.
The same is repeated during the evening, but this time it’s vehicles headed towards the city centre that are blocked to allow the inbound traffic use both lanes.
While to some degree this has worked, it only favors the majority, without looking at the composition of the minority which in many cases includes school buses and even ambulances and police vehicles.
There are many instances when the minority is released before the majority is cleared, resulting in accidents and serious snarl-ups.
These developments heavily suggest that the area is experiencing a very high level of economic activity, that needs to be adequately supported by the government.
Development almost naturally follows roads, as transport affects almost every aspect of economic activity.
Roads are the arteries through which the country’s economy pulses. They link workers to jobs, farmers to markets, students to schools, police to their stations, the sick to hospitals and essential service providers to where their services are needed.
The 2021 Gross County Product (GCP) report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics showed Nairobi made a contribution of 27.5 percent to the country’s overall GDP with Kiambu County coming in at second position with a 5.9 percent share of the GDP.
Our infrastructural development is maturing and as the new administration settles in, dualling of Kiambu Road to support the economic agenda of both Nairobi and Kiambu counties will be vital for the country’s development agenda as a matter of urgency.
The writer is the managing director of strategic communications and issues management firm Calla PR