Life, death and driving in Nairobi

It is said that when Sir Isaac Newton watched an apple fall while ‘pensively meandering’ through a garden he used this observation as the basis of his theory of gravity. Since then, Newton’s formulation is a cornerstone of the mathematical and physical knowledge that we hold about the manner in which matter behaves in the universe. With this in mind, this week, I’d like to step off the politics bandwagon and propose a humble proposition of my own regarding human nature - call it Nanjala’s Law of Transportation.

The law is simply this - you can tell a lot about a nation by the way its people drive. Some weeks ago, I wrote about Egypt and the way in which the streets of Cairo provided an apt analogy of the country’s socio-political make-up at the time. Plunging into traffic at 2am was a reminder that this was a vibrant and thriving nation with a promising economy and little time for sleep, while the flagrancy with which even the most basic rules were bent and broken was a jarring reminder that underneath the gloss was a nation choking under the weight of a collapsing infrastructure and hollow state. Still, in all this mania there remained a palpable respect for human life; a Cairene driver may blast down the wrong side of the road at 80kph, but would generally stop for pedestrians crossing at a junction.

In the same breath, the madness of driving in Kenya, and specifically in Nairobi, bears witness to the contradictions of the society at large. Something about getting behind the wheel anywhere in the world tears away any pretexts of civility, and it is on the road that we see individuals at their most raw. In part, it is because getting behind the wheel or walking across a highway is the only life or death decision that we consciously yet repeatedly make, and therefore we often resort to operating with our most base instincts rather than a reflective appreciation for what it is we are actually doing.

Kenya has one of the highest road accident rates in the world, and indeed the world was robbed of the genius of my illustrious predecessor on this column on one of our most notorious roads. It’s not because Kenyan cars are significantly less roadworthy than in many other developing countries. It is simply because Kenyans don’t respect the road and they don’t respect each other. Indeed, driving in Kenya, and in Nairobi specifically, is probably the world’s longest running game of Chicken.

When a Kenyan crosses the street, you get the sense that it is only in part to get to the other side. The majority of his or her sentiment is dedicated to smiting drivers and daring them to run him or her over. How else do you explain why on Valley Road and Mbagathi Way, two major feeder roads into the city on steep inclines, pedestrians routinely sprint across the road, under the shadow of a fly-over bridge that was expressly constructed to avoid this kind of insanity? It doesn’t matter if the driver is forced to briefly dive into oncoming traffic to avoid said pedestrian - a warning hoot will get you a dismissive wave, as if to say, ‘It sucks to be you.” Pedestrians seem to believe that drivers would have to be completely evil to run them over, not realising that especially when careening down a bend on a steep hill the car is more in control of the driver than the other way round.

Which is not to say that drivers are entirely blameless in this schema. Nowhere else to my knowledge do drivers get hooted at impatiently for stopping at pedestrian crossings or at red lights. Kenyans drive with a disproportionate sense of entitlement, expressing frustration when others break the rules or take shortcuts while eagerly taking every opportunity presented to do the same. Anything goes as long as it gets you where you are going and fast. We love to lay the primary blame for accidents on matatu – minivan - drivers but the reality is that 90 per cent of the drivers in this country would never pass a drivers’ test in another country simply because driving in Kenya is a manic free for all with no rules and, most importantly, no respect.

How does this translate to the broader society? Well for one, it speaks volumes of the hypocrisy with which society functions here. Clearly there is a thirst in this nation for people to get ahead and go places, but the way we conduct ourselves on the roads speaks to the extent to which we are prepared to compromise basic human values to get there. Kenyans cry foul at corruption from the police and other organs of state, but the majority will not bat an eyelid at taking every opportunity open to get ahead, whether it’s illegal or at the expense of others. Scapegoating is another thing - better to blame matatu drivers and the police for failure to maintain order on the roads than to realise that if you are mature enough to drive you should be mature enough to follow the rules without a policeman hovering over your shoulder.

I mentioned respect for human life - the lack of basic courtesy at junctions or in traffic jams speaks volumes of the lack of respect that Kenyans have for each other. Similarly, respect is nothing if not bound with some sense of responsibility and in Kenya the way that pedestrians and drivers forgo their responsibility to do everything in their power to protect the lives of others is reflective of the way in which we are prepared to do nothing while armed gangs terrorise the countryside, IDPs continue to sleep in tents and politicians make a mockery of national and international judicial processes. Of course we complain - loudly. Newspapers and radio stations alike are replete with members of the public railing at our awful roads. However, when it comes to actually doing something - being that guy who does the right thing even while everyone else is impatiently hooting for them to keep it moving - that’s another story altogether.

Roads anywhere are a matter of life or death. Maybe if we learnt to drive with respect we could learn to treat each other with respect in life and death.

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