Sakaja pledges to work with Kura to improve city roads

The Nairobi County Government in collaboration with the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) will expand the use of technology to manage traffic better, including identifying and fining offenders.

This was agreed upon after Governor Johnson Sakaja hosted Kura Director General Eng Silas Kinoti to discuss ways in which they can enhance partnership to deliver more and better roads for city residents.

Eng Kinoti briefed Governor Sakaja on the various projects that Kura is undertaking in the city, among them the construction of an intelligent transport management command Centre that will be based along Mombasa Road near City Cabanas which is funded by the South Korean Government to a tune of Sh16 billion.

Governor Sakaja said that one of the key pillars of his administration is to bring order to the county.

Smart technology

“We want to deploy smart technology to ensure order in our transport sector. It makes no sense to have working traffic lights yet the movement of vehicles is still manually controlled,” Mr Sakaja said.

Mr Kinoti expressed concern about vandalism and theft of road infrastructure and called for better enforcement by the police.

“Vandalism is one of the biggest challenges to road furniture and we need a team that comprises the police, the county government, Kura and other stakeholders to deal with this,” Mr Kinoti said.

The governor added that he would call a multi-sectoral meeting to find ways in which various government agencies can work together to deal with challenges in the transport sector.

Traffic remains the biggest challenge that is facing the county government and the national government.

The motorists in Nairobi are some of the worst hit by traffic in Africa.

The construction of the Nairobi Expressway has not reduced the traffic, but has given motorists an alternative way to escape from the daily traffic jam.