Kenyans stuck overnight in Mombasa Road traffic jam in Nairobi

Traffic on Mombasa road

Traffic on Mombasa road

Thousands of motorists and passengers have spent hours stuck in an enormous traffic jam in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, with some saying they were stranded for the whole night.

Others narrated how they arrived home just in time to leave for their journey to work the next day.

“A girl spent the night in her car. Ridiculous that I’m getting home at 4am yet I was out of CBD (city centre) by 5pm,” lawyer Pauline Otsyula tweeted.

Videos and photos on social media showed frustrated drivers still stuck on Mombasa Road in the early hours of Friday morning.

A local media outlet quoted the highways authority as saying the gridlock was caused by a road accident.

Nairobi is notorious for its traffic jams but Thursday night was the worst many residents can remember.

Many people have expressed their anger online.

Anthony Ndiema said: “I left Capital Centre at 8pm and got to Syokimau at 2 am. Elsewhere, someone has left JKIA (airport) and gotten to Doha and probably done almost 2 hrs of work. Surely! How can I still be productive the following day at work?”

While Gerald Ngui urged employers to let their workers who lived in the area to work from home. “It’s the human thing to do,” he said.

Some called for the contractors to provide alternative routes while the work was being carried out.

The road construction is part of the $550m (£410m) Nairobi Expressway project that will connect the country’s main airport, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, to the Nairobi-Nakuru highway in the west.

On completion, it will be a 27km (17-mile) highway, some of it elevated and parts of it woven into existing roads. It is meant to ease traffic flows in and out of the centre of the city.

It is being financed and constructed by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) – and the Chinese firm will operate the highway under a public-private partnership.

The stretch of the road most affected on Thursday night connects the city centre to highly populated suburbs in the east.

source: yahoo.com