Thousands Stranded at Night in Nairobi as Police Block Thika Road

An image of Thika Super Highway
Traffic snarl-up caused by a roadblock erected to stop movement in and out of Nairobi Metropolitan area on Monday, April 3 2020.
Twitter

Thousands of motorists and passengers were caught up in a Nairobi-wide lockdown on the night of Saturday, April 17, after police moved to enforce the 8 pm to 4 am curfew.

Several major roads leading in the city including Thika Road, Langata Road, Mombasa Road, Waiyaki Way and Jogoo Road had police roadblocks causing major traffic gridlock, with no cars allowed in and out of the city.

Sources indicate that police also put up roadblocks across several roads within the city including Wilson Airport, Galleria Mall, Mwiki, Kasarani, Junction Mall and Shujaa Mall.

Stranded motorists who were stuck in traffic on Thika Superhighway on April 17, 2021
Stranded motorists who were stuck in traffic on Thika Superhighway on April 17, 2021
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Other police roadblocks were at the Coptic Hospital, Elgeyo Road, Arboretum Road and Kayole Junction.

One motorist posted a video online saying, "I am now on Thika Road and the police have blocked the road because it's past curfew time. They (police) have told us we will sleep on the road until 4 am."

Crowdsourcing traffic app Ma3Route indicated that traffic was backed up along Eastern bypass and Kangundo Road. 

Essential service vehicles such as ambulances were finding it difficult to navigate through the chock-a-block traffic that saw motorists get out of their cars as there was no movement as at 11 pm.   

The blockage affected thousand of Nairobi residents as well as those who live in bordering towns. The recent census report indicated that Nairobi has over 4 Million residents - most of whom commute to and from work daily.

Traffic snarl-up in Nairobi is a common occurrence - and has often seen commuters leave their homes from as early as 4:00 am to arrive at the capital in time - and leave early.

Police have maintained that they are following strict orders with regards to Covid-19 containment measures.

This comes after President Uhuru Kenyatta on March 26 announced a raft of measures to mitigate the rising cases of Coronavirus in Kenya.

Uhuru placed Nairobi and four other counties of Kajiado, Machakos, Kiambu and Nakuru deemed as the virus hotspots under lockdown.

He also reviewed curfew hours in the five counties to begin from 8 pm to 4 am.

The only people exempted from the curfew are medical professionals, pharmaceutical companies, national security officers, licensed media houses, the Kenya Revenue Authority, the Kenya Civil Aviation, the Kenya Airport Authority, power production companies, among others.

National Police Service truck pictured at a roadblock.
An undated photo of a police roadblock in Kenya
File