It's about 11.30am on a Tuesday. A motorist driving towards Sarit Centre in Westlands plunges into a pothole causing a traffic jam on Pio Gama Pinto road.
It takes two pedestrians to push the car out of the crater-sized pothole.
“Thank you so much. You cannot believe that this is the country that has borrowed so many loans and the very same government that is spending a lot of money on these so-called BBI rallies,” the angry middle-aged motorist tells the two pedestrians.
For almost one-and-half years now, the road connecting Waiyaki Way and Sarit Centre and branching towards Jacaranda Hotel has been deteriorating day by day.
Motorists along Ngara road would tell the same story. Drivers swerve from one lane to another to avoid potholes.
“Our lives are endangered, so are those of our customers. Motorists drive so close to our shops trying to avoid the potholes. It is worse during the rainy season as they (motorists) splash stagnant rainwater on us and our goods,” roadside a trader at Ngara market says.
Then there are Nyasa road (linking Jogoo road and Heshima) and Uaso road within Maringo and Bahati estates, Makadara constituency, which now resemble a ploughed field.
In the neighbouring Embakasi West subcounty is a road that was abandoned two years ago. The road that was only waiting to be tarred separates Buru Buru Phase I and Kiambiu slums and was to connect Buru Buru and Outering roads.
The poor state of roads in Westlands and Eastlands is replicated in Kamukunji, Eastleigh area, where most of the roads remain impassible.
One road that is a nightmare for the residents of Eastleigh is Waudo street that touches Pumwani Maternity Hospital on one end and First Avenue Street on the other.
At the junction of Waudo street and the First Avenue Street is a pool that never dries up.
The construction of Timboroa street within the same area that was almost 70 per cent done has been abandoned as well.
Most of these roads are under Kenya Urban Roads Authority.
Edited by Henry Makori
